Who is Harrison Wells?
by LittleMissMycroft
Summary: The Boy-Who-Lived. Scientist, Wizard. Inventor, Auror. Hero…Villain. These are all titles. Things the public choses to name two very different people. These titles can sometimes be one's identity, but they don't always have to define who that person is. But underneath the titles, underneath the façade, who are these people? Are they really all they really all that different?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Flash. None of the characters are mine, nor the concepts. I make no moneys, just enjoy messing with the stories for pleasure.**

 **Now, onto business. This is a story idea that I had that jumped into my mind one day while I was binge watching season two of The Flash, and it has refused to leave me alone since. Therefore, I present all my lovely readers with this story. If you are an old reader of mine, welcome back and I hope you enjoy. And if you have only just stumbled across me because you were searching for a good crossover, you can check out some of my other stories.**

 **Just a warning: The story may be a bit confusing at first, but I assure you that by the end you will understand what's going on...hopefully...and if, by then, you do _not_ understand, please message me.**

 **Now without further ado, I give you the first installment of _Who is Harrison Wells?_**

* * *

 **Chapter One:**

Sand was everywhere. The sound of waves could be heard, a continuous din that went on without end. Birds cried out overhead. The sun beat down harshly on the beach, sending out waves of exhausted heat. On the beach a couple sat, gazing out at the horizon and talking quietly amongst themselves.

"I know," the man said gravely, levelling a sad gaze at the woman that sat beside him, wearing the ring he gave her. "I know this is horrible news— _horrible_ —but i-it's not the end of the world!" He let out a shaky breath, tears filled both their eyes and he laid his hands on hers, squeezing them as he continued, "We can adopt—we can still have a family."

A tear slipped down the woman's beautiful face.

"I-I don't know," she whispered, too distraught to manage to find her voice. She swallowed, attempting to lessen the lump in her throat. "I just—I don't think I'm ready."

"Then, we'll wait," the man replied.

Silence fell once more and they both turned to gaze out on the calming waters.

It truly was a beautiful day in Starling City. It was a pity, Adam Wells thought. On this day, this day that they found out that he and his wife—Sophia Wells—cannot have a family of their own, it felt as if the world should be mourning. It felt as if the sky itself should be crying its tears on them. Instead, the sun shone. The birds chirped. If anything else, it made his grief feel all the more unreal.

Suddenly, the silence was broken.

There was a strange noise, sounding like air being sucked out of the air all around them, mixed with a very loud _CRACK!_ The couple jumped. Sophia's head turned as her husband leapt to his feet in surprise. There, standing before them, was a child. He was tiny—probably no older than four years of age—and covered head to toe with sand. All around him, sand particles flew. They were suspended in the air as if gravity had forgotten how to pull them to the ground.

The boy wore strange clothes that seemed to swallow him—a black robe that contrasted the pale, sharp face. His dark hair shot straight up in wispy tufts, and the boy had large, round glasses that dominated his face. Peering through them were a pair of bright green eyes that exuded intelligence.

It seemed as if time stopped in the instance that the boy appeared. Adam was frozen in a half-crouch, one hand extended as if to catch him if he fell. Sophia's hands leapt to her mouth and she stared with utter surprise. The boy, already deathly pale, seemed to have forgotten to breathe. He stood and stared, his mouth hanging open, his eyes fogged with a mix of emotions.

Then, time started once more. The boy sucked in an audible gasp of air, his eyes rolled into the back of his skull, and he collapsed to the ground. The sand flying around him fell to the ground at once, splashing harmlessly against the now unconscious boy.

"Oh my God!" Sophie cried, her hands still covering her mouth. Tears that had been spilling moments before still clung to her eyelashes.

"Oh, God! Are you all right?" Adam exclaimed, rushing forward, not expecting a response. He checked the boy's pulse and realized he was breathing very rapidly and shallowly. "Sophie, Sophie call someone!"

Shaky hands pulled a phone out of her coat pocket. She quickly tap, tap, tapped, and then held up her phone to her ear as it began ringing.

" _911, what's your emergency_?"

Tears spilling over once more, she cried, "A boy just appeared out of nowhere—he's deathly pale." She started forward and crouched next to her husband. Her breath was knocked away as she realized that the sand underneath the tiny child was growing darker with red. "He's bleeding so much! Oh, God—Adam, he's not going to die, is he?"

" _Hold on, ma'am!_ " said a voice in her ear. " _We're coming as fast as we can. Where are you?"_

"Down at the water front," Sophia whispered, wiping the tears out of her eyes. "Hurry!"

"Don't worry," Adam said softly to the boy. "Someone's coming for you. You're going to be okay." The boy's eyes drifted open. They were tiny slits that only barely revealed his green irises. The boy's dark eyebrows were drawn together. "Stay with us…Stay with us. What's your name?"

"H-h-Har—ry," the boy gasped.

"You're going to be all right, Harry," Adam whispered, a tearful smile filling his face. He smoothed back the boy's hair. A ghost of a smile appeared on the boy's face—and then changed into a grimace of pain.

It felt as though an eternity of time passed by the time the ambulance arrived. People flooded out of it, picking up the boy and laying him on a stretcher. Sophia and Adam followed them inside. Sophia was still holding the boy's cold, limp hand.

…

 _The Battle of Hogwarts had taken its toll on everyone, but it affected one person the most. Harry Potter had not been the same ever since that day. He distanced himself from his friends—the family he had built for himself. He felt that all of the deaths that occurred that day were his fault—Voldemort had only attacked in order to reach and kill Harry._

 _Even now that Voldemort was gone, Harry had no idea what to do with his life. Sure, he had always considered becoming an auror in the future, but now that he could—for no one would turn down the Wizarding World's savior in a job such as that—it just seemed pointless. Meaningless._

 _Harry slipped into a dark depression for months afterwards. He hid inside Grimmauld Place, focusing on how much he had lost. He had no idea how to move forward—how to move on. It was like he was reliving the past seven years of his life over and over again. Each night Harry woke in a cold sweat, a result of never ending nightmares that always ended in Harry losing and Voldemort destroying everything he loved._

 _Finally, Harry's friends got together to bring back the Harry they knew. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione all sat down at a table in Diagon Alley and discussed how he had changed, and how he was surely a danger to himself if something didn't change. It was then they decided that they would go and talk sense into the man._

" _Harry, if you don't let us in right now," Hermione cried to the door of Number 13 Grimmauld Place, "so help me I will blast this door down!"_

 _There came no response._

" _All right," Hermione muttered, drawing her wand. "Three…two…"_

 _The door swung open to reveal a thin and ruffled looking Harry. He wore a bed robe, which he tightened at the waist and stared at his friends with blank eyes._

" _What are you doing here?" he finally asked._

" _We need to talk," Ginny said._

 _It took a great amount of persuasion, but finally Harry let them inside and received the telling off of a lifetime—mostly thanks to Hermione. Finally, Harry decided it was time to reemerge. Harry applied for a job as an auror and was soon granted his request. He began hanging out with his friends at the twins' old joke shop in Diagon Alley, and began going on dates with Ginny. He had finally gotten himself back out there._

" _Thanks for meeting me here," Ginny said with a warm smile. "I'm really glad you're no longer hiding away in that place."_

" _It is certainly much better spending time with you than wasting away in a house haunted by my dreams," Harry replied with a wry smile. "By the way, please tell your brother thanks for letting me move in that flat with him."_

" _I'm sure he would reply with something along the lines of 'no problem'," Ginny returned. The two of them were sitting at a table outside Florean Fortescue's. The hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley passed around them, separated by an iron fence and a sunny sidewalk._

 _The two of them continued to laugh and talk, but something didn't feel right. Harry tried to shrug it off, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched._

" _Harry, are you all right?" Ginny asked, jerking Harry back to the present. "You seem…distracted."_

" _What—no, no I'm fine!" Harry exclaimed. "Anyway, how about some of that ice cream?"_

 _Ginny gave him a skeptical look, but came to her feet as well. Harry bowed his head and made a gesture that said, "After you," and began following her towards the door of the ice cream parlor._

" _Distracted," Harry laughed. "I'm not distracted! I've completely been paying attention. You said something about your aunt telling you baby stories about the twins?"_

 _They both laughed at the thought of two red-head twins causing mayhem before they even knew what the word meant. Suddenly, Harry came to a halt at the feeling of something poking into his back. His smile quickly fell. Ginny, who had already entered the shop, did not notice he had fallen behind._

" _If you want your pretty friend alive, I would keep your mouth shut," said a voice behind him._

" _What do you want with me?" Harry asked, slowly reaching for his wand._

" _It's nothing personal," the voice said. "I just need something to happen a bit sooner than planned—and I need you out of the way."_

 _Harry prepared to whip around and duel, his wand in hand, but before he could manage to utter a word, a voice to his left called, "Expelliarmus!" Harry's wand shot out of his hand, leaving him defenseless. It flew towards a dark, cloaked figure. While he was distracted, the person behind him hit him hard over the head with his own wand and Harry slumped to the floor. Just as the three vanished with a CRACK!, Ginny returned outside._

" _Harry?" she called. "Where'd you go?"_

…

"Hush, he's waking up."

Harry's eyes felt as if they were made of stone, weighed down by ten pound weights. Slowly, he forced them open and instantly regretted it. Light penetrated his eyes with a force so strong, it was blinding. Figures swam before his eyes until they finally adjusted. Only then could he barely make out the blurry forms of three people.

"How are you?" came a woman's voice.

Harry squinted, peering at the blurry forms.

"Here, bud," came a man's voice. The man handed Harry his glasses. He put them on to reveal a man, a woman, and a doctor. The man had brown hair, square glasses, and wore a brown trench coat. The woman had long black hair and wore a thick black coat.

"May I ask," the man said, "how you came to be on that beach?"

Harry faltered.

"I don't know," he whispered.

"What about your family?" the woman asked. "Where are they?"

"I don't know," Harry repeated.

"Can you tell us their names?" the man questioned.

The little boy silently shook his head. The three adults exchanged glances. Slowly, they turned and left the room.

"We'll run some tests," the doctor said. "And send any information we have to the police. Perhaps they can find the boy's parents. Until then Social Security will likely take him."

…

Weeks passed and the boy's parents were never found. It turned out he suffered from amnesia. The only thing he could tell them was that his name was Harry—no last name, no parent's names, not even where he came from. The couple that found him formed an odd bond with him, and as everyone in Starling City realized no one would ever come for the boy they adopted him.

The mysterious boy named Harry became Harrison Wells, raised by the young couple that had lost hope that they would ever have a family. And yet, they were happy—just the three of them. Everything was perfect.

* * *

 **Now I will tell you that the first few chapters are about this length (five to seven pages in a word document), but after that they get pretty long. Please review and tell me what you think! This is only the third official story I've written, so I'm still working on my writing style. Hope you enjoyed it!**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Harry Potter or the Flash**

 **Just a few things to address before we get to the chapter. One reader brought up the problem with the difference of eye color with Wells and Harry Potter. I do realize that Tom Cavanaugh's eyes are blue, so for the sake of the story I just used a bit of creative license. So, for the intent of this story, let's just imagine Wells's eyes are green.**

 **Second, I will not divulge what Earth Harrison is from. It's a surprise ;) You can have fun guessing, but I will assure you that you will find out by the end of the story.**

 **Now, on with the show! Read, review, and enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Two:**

Harrison Wells was a very promising young man. Even he knew that. He was very bright, always curious, always exploring, and the boy had always been different. He was an outcast as a young child—even in elementary school. The boy had been brighter than all of his classmates and, in an attempt to fit in, tried not to show how smart he was in class. He also had a problem with anger—when he grew angry, which was quite often for a genius orphan boy, things around him would shake, explode, _change_.

It wasn't until the summer before his eleventh birthday that he understood why. Of course, being an orphan with no memory of his past he had no idea when his real birthday was. Instead, his parents chose to celebrate the day he had appeared to them—July 6.

On that day he was sitting at the breakfast table with his parents.

"You about ready to go back to school, Harry?" his father asked. Harrison laughed—only his parents still called him Harry.

"Summer doesn't end for another four weeks!" he exclaimed.

"But you'll be ready for school when it does come," Adam smiled.

"Well," Harrison said haltingly. Then, he sighed, "Yeah."

"You shouldn't be ashamed to love school," Adam said.

"Oh, yeah I love school," Harry said in a harsh tone, "just not the people in it."

"They're just jealous because you're different," his mother said with a smile.

"Yeah," Harrison muttered bitterly, looking down at his cereal and giving it a stir. "Different is right."

He didn't have to look up to know his parents were giving him a pitying look. Luckily, he was spared their glances at the sound of their mail slot clinking. Harrison's young, sharp ears picked up the sound instantly.

"I got it!" he cried, jumping up and running to the door. He grabbed the pile of mail and sifted through it on the way to his table muttering, "Bill…bill…work letter…hello…"

When he said this, he cocked his head in curiosity. Sitting at the bottom of the stack was a thick envelope addressed to him in purple ink.

…

That fall he attended the school of Ilvermorny for the first time. Harrison was sorted into the Horned Serpent house, given a wand, and told there were hundreds of kids like him.

But still, he was different. The boy took all the classes Ilvermorny had to offer, and on top of that he had his parents send him non-magical school work so he could keep up. Perhaps the reason he wanted to continue his No-Maj studies was because every time he cast a new spell they taught in class, he had the vague feeling he had done it before. Every spell he tried, he managed to do perfectly on first try. Every theory they taught him, he already understood—like he had learned it before. It was not challenging in the slightest.

" _If there's one thing my parents have taught me so far,_ _it's that I always need to challenge myself—to push myself further than I think I could ever go. 'That is what makes one successful in life', Adam Wells says_." So Harrison pushed himself in his studies, learning magic that no one taught him—delving into library books in his free time—and pushing himself to learn all about the No-Maj subjects that intrigued him the most—math and science.

Of course, he still had moments where life felt unreal—as though he was living in a dream. One instance was when he was in his last year at Ilvermorny. He was sitting at the breakfast table by himself as usual, immersed in an enormous book on physics, when an owl dropped down with the morning news. Always interested in world events, Harrison received news from America, Great Britain, and France. This morning on the Daily Prophet, the headline read, _THE DARK LORD HAS RETURNED._

Harrison's jaw dropped and he stared at the paper, very pale. He had no idea why, but suddenly his hands were shaking. He put one of his shaky hands up to his face and rubbed it. It felt as though the world around him was a dream—as if this newspaper article was all he had left of a world gone missing.

"Wells!" Harrison jerked back to the present. "Hey, Wells! What's the matter? Scared of a piece of paper?"

The boys sitting down the table began laughing at him.

"You look like you've seen a ghost!" another one snorted.

Harrison shook his head and returned to his physics book—what did it matter to him anyways what happened in Britain? That was a whole continent away.

That wasn't the first time something like that had happened, and certainly was not the last.

But life carried on as usual, Harrison continuing through it like everyone else. He graduated from Ilvermorny with flying colors and was offered positions in the Magical Congress of the United States of America, Magical Law Enforcement Department, and many other jobs. However, Harrison Wells turned them all down so he could continue to push himself. He attended Yale University in Massachusetts, and got degrees in technology and physics.

While at Yale, he met a woman named Tess Morgan. The first time he ever saw her, Harrison was star struck. It took him weeks to manage to say anything to her. Not long after, he convinced her to get coffee with him. When he graduated from Yale, he bought himself an apartment, set up a lab for himself inside it, and began experiment with both science and magic. While doing this and continuing to see Tess, Harrison disappeared from the wizarding community with only a warning that he should never tell anyone of magic.

…

Albert Mutare sat in his cell in Iron Heights, sad and ashamed of what he did—to some extent, he couldn't even remember how he came to be in that cell. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the cell changed. The air became thicker, seeming to press in on him. He held a hand up to his head and backed up against the wall of his cell. When he looked back up, he saw the air rippling and twisting before him.

It writhed and shimmered, appearing to be a portal of sorts. Mutare gradually stood up, his mouth hanging open, and walked towards the odd portal. He came to a halt only a foot away. Slowly, he lifted his hand and reached forward. Suddenly, it felt as though something jerked his navel and he disappeared from his cell, the portal going with him. Light and darkness flashed all about him, speeding around him in wisps. Images flashed before his eyes. Suddenly, it stopped and he fell on his back, landing on a large stone dais, looking up at a pointed archway, from which hung a glimmering veil.

Mutare slowly got to his feet and looked around. All around, rectangular walls rose beyond a deep stone pit. This created a canyon around the dais with a single stone staircase that led up to a door.

"Where am I?" Mutare asked himself quietly, his voice echoing all about the dimly lit room.

…

Somehow Mutare managed to make it outside without being seen. There, he wandered in the streets of London, spinning in circles and looking very much like a crazy, lost, homeless man. He had managed to make it three streets away when suddenly the world went dark. When he awoke once more, he was in a dark room with a single light shining on him. He tried to stand, but found he was tied to a chair. Grunting, Mutare struggled against his bonds.

"I don't understand it," said a female voice. "That veil is the only tangible embodiment of the barrier between the living and the dead we have. It is _impossible_ for _anyone_ to come through from the other side."

"Maybe there's more to that archway than we ever could have believed," replied a man with a deep voice.

Suddenly the darkness was penetrated by a rectangle of light—a doorway. Through it came two people, a man and a woman. They closed the door behind them, sealing off the darkness once more. Then, they stepped into the light. Mutare inspected them silently—they were wearing strange grey clothes that were ankle-length.

"Let me go!" Mutare cried, struggling with all his might. "Why have you taken me here?"

"We just want to ask you a few questions," the man replied, holding his hands up in a placating manner.

Mutare paid them no heed and continued to struggle.

"Where did you come from?" the woman asked, receiving no reply. "How did you get here?"

Mutare continued to buck and jerk, growing continuously more panicked.

"What is your name?" the woman asked.

Suddenly, Mutare stopped moving. It was as though something inside him had been triggered. He lifted his head and glowered at them, his eyes glowing bright red.

"My name," he panted. "Is Transmutation."

…

Harrison Wells sat on the beach, a napkin in his lap, the shimmering waves before him. Beside him sat his fiancé, Tess. Harrison could not have been happier. That beach was a part of him—it was where he found his family. It was where he took Tess on their first real date. Sometimes when he was upset, he liked to go out at night and sit on the cold sand, watching the waves and observing the stars.

But in this instance he was not sad. He was very content, expressing his thoughts and theories beside the woman he chose to spend his life with.

"—the laboratories aren't connected with the government," Harrison rambled, scribbling on his napkin excitedly, "aren't connected with any business interest or any of that kind of stuff. And we can build right downtown in the heart of the city, in the epicenter. And we become the heart of the city—we become the heart of the nation. We change the way they think about the sciences, and then—"

He broke off, realizing that Tess wasn't taking in a word he was saying. Instead, she was just watching him with a smile on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"Just that my father would have loved you as much as I do," Tess smiled, waving her wine glass slightly as she said so.

Harrison sighed and took the toothpick out of his mouth, looking at it before looking back up at her, saying, "I wish I could have met him."

He looked down at his napkin and then held it up to look at, letting out another violent sigh, smiling grimly. Seeing her peering over his shoulder, the dark haired young man turned the napkin for her to see. She took it from him and looked at his sketch of the building.

"Oh," she said. "And what would you call these laboratories?"

"Well _we_ , Tess Morgan," he said, emphasizing the word 'we' as he fiddled with his pen in one hand, "would call them the Technological Engineering Scientific Studies, or TESS for short."

Tess's smile brightened and she said, "Well that is very, very sweet, but how about…" she held up the drawing again and continued, "Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories, or STAR Labs for short." Her fiancé turned to look at her with a small smile. "Because in the vast night sky you, Harrison Wells, are the only star I see."

Harrison chewed on his lip for a second and then smiled, "That's gonna get you kissed."

"Oh," Tess laughed as the dark hair man leaned forward.

Suddenly the atmosphere around them changed. The air thickened, condensing like a hot soup. The air that separated them from the ocean rippled and writhed, letting out a strong pulse that knocked the two of them over. Neither of them said a word, they both laid on the ground where they landed, staring at it.

Silently, Harrison got to his feet and slowly walked forward. Behind him, Tess sat up, her mouth still agape. Harrison drew to a stop about a foot in front of the ripple and his hand twitched.

"Harrison!" Tess exclaimed. "What are you doing? We don't know what that thing is—or what it could do to you."

"It's beautiful," Harrison whispered. "An anomaly."

His hand twitched once more.

"Come on," Tess continued. "Come back to the city with me. I think we should leave it alone."

"I wonder what it is," Harrison muttered, circling around it.

Tess got to her feet and tilted her head in annoyance, letting out a small sigh of exasperation—what was it with men and wanting to figure everything out? Well, perhaps not all men, but Harrison certainly was one filled with curiosity.

"Let's go," she said, jerking her head towards the car.

"Just a minute," the tall man replied, fiddling with the pen in his one hand again while the other twitched towards the ripple once more. "I wonder if I could take a sample of it…"

"What you're gonna fit that thing in a test tube?" Tess laughed.

"No," Harrison said with a smile. "Just this chamber I've been working on to take air samples."

He pulled it out of his pocket and reached towards the ripple.

"What, you just carry that thing around with you everywhere for occasions like this?" the blonde girl asked, cocking one eyebrow.

"I happen to work on it when I'm bored," he argued.

And, flicking a switch he thrust his hand into the ripple, setting off a scanner on his vacuum powered chamber.

"No!" Tess exclaimed, not able to shake the feeling that something was wrong here and stretching out a hand towards her fiancé.

But it was too late. Harrison looked up at her in surprise, and then vanished with a swirl. Just like that, Harrison Wells was gone—and so was the ripple that took him.

* * *

 **And the plot finally starts! We get to see a fun scene with Harrison and Tess, and of course, there's the mysterious baddie...Transmutation! Review your thoughts and questions on him. I promise to respond, at the very least, in my chapters to good questions. Until our next communion...**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: All rights to the Flash belong to the CW. They do not belong to me...nor do all rights to Harry Potter :(**

 **Here's the third chapter! We get to see what happened to our idiotic hero. This one's a bit short, but I can assure you that nearly all chapters to follow will be nearly twice as long. So, without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Three:**

"Go get him," Joe West whispered, breathing heavily as he lay on the ground.

Barry Allen breathed a sigh of relief that his father figure was still alive for only a second before dashing out of the building at top speed. He wore a red suit and streaks of lightning flew out behind him as he moved faster than the blink of an eye. Outside, standing in the middle of the wet, dark road, Barry found his bad-guy. He was bald, skinny, and wore a short-sleeved button down shirt. Barry skidded to a halt.

"Come to finish what the gas chamber couldn't do?" the man asked.

"You're going somewhere you can't hurt anyone ever again," Barry told him firmly, shaking his head a little.

…

The man condensed into his green, gaseous state with a roar and flung himself fruitlessly at the glass door. Standing just outside the pipeline were Barry's three friends—Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, and Harrison Wells. Cisco stood with his arms crossed, his long dark hair tucked behind his ears. Beside him, Dr. Wells sat in his wheelchair. On the other side of Wells was Caitlin, who was looking at the man with apprehension.

"Will it," Caitlin hesitated, "hold?"

"The barrier is powered by an 8.3 tesla superconducting electromagnetic, which is about one hundred times the strength of the Earth's magnetic field," Cisco replied, eyeing the make-shift cell.

"In other words, yes," Dr. Wells added, looking up at Caitlin.

Caitlin nodded and let out a tiny huff. At another one of their prisoner's yells, Wells shook his head with a wry smile. "Hm," he mused shortly. "He's mad. Well, goodnight."

He tapped a few buttons and a large bulkhead closed, cutting off their view of the angry man.

"So, we're just supposed to get used to working above a make-shift prison housing evil people with super powers?" Caitlin asked.

"You can be surprised what you can get used to, Caitlin," Dr. Wells, replied. With that, he turned his automatic wheelchair around and headed up out of the pipeline.

…

Barry was out visiting his father in prison—his father who was unjustly accused of killing his wife. Cisco and Caitlin were leaving to go get ice-cream. This left Dr. Wells in STAR Labs by himself. He sat in the main room, looking at Barry's—The Flash's—red suit. While he sat there his mouth twitched into a grin.

He could vividly remember that day, over nine months ago, when the particle accelerator exploded. Ronnie Raymond died, sealed into the pipeline trying to contain the blast. That was the last day he himself walked freely. But most of all, he remembered watching Barry Allen get struck by lightning from the time vault.

"See you soon, Barry Allen," he whispered, and then wheeled away.

The lights turned out behind him, leaving STAR Labs empty and closed for the night. Everyone returned to their respective homes and went to sleep. But in the heart of the building built by Harrison Wells, a blue light flickered. The air pulsed, condensing like a fog. It rippled, warped, and convulsed like a living organism. Then, without warning a body was catapulted through the void onto the ground.

Young Harrison Wells groaned and attempted to sit up, but his head was throbbing terribly from where it had collided with a dark shape—a desk of some sorts. Harrison fell back to the ground, his head rolled to the side, and he passed out.

…

"Guys?" a voice called out.

Harrison shot up, hitting his head on the desk again. Wincing, he rubbed his head and let out a sigh as a wave of emotions hit him: curiosity as to where he was, anger at himself that he didn't listen to his fiancée, guilt for probably worrying her to death, and then a wave of anxiety that almost made him feel nauseous—his throbbing head didn't help matters.

"Anyone here?" The unknown voice called out once more. There was a brief pause as a young man with long hair walked into the room. "—woah."

The young man, who looked to be around his age (or perhaps just younger), came to a stop—freezing at the sight of Harrison. The scientist was looking around his strange surroundings with curiosity, his feelings of guilt and worry still writhing within his stomach.

"What?" the unknown young man asked, his mouth hanging open. "Wait, _what_? No, I must be seeing things." He raised a hand to cover his eyes, and then lowered it again. When he saw that Harrison was still standing there, his dark eyebrows drew together in confusion and he muttered, "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out," Harrison replied haltingly, "where—I am?"

He walked around the room, looking at the computers and the tech. Catching sight of the Flash's red suit, he came to a halt and peered at it. The unhappy turmoil was slowly ebbing away, leaving a silent, empty feeling that buzzed around his head.

"But—no—you can't," the stranger floundered. "You can't _walk_. How—? You're walking?"

"Yes—I am," Harrison muttered, confused. He turned to face the man.

"But you've been paralyzed from the waist down ever since the particle accelerator exploded."

"Particle accelerator?" Harrison asked.

"Yeah, you know?" the long haired fellow retorted. " _Your_ particle accelerator? The one that blew up nine months ago? Created a whole bunch of whack-a-zoid criminals with powers."

"Look, uh—" Harrison broke off, putting a hand on the other man's shoulder.

"Cisco," the man informed him slowly, his eyebrows drawn together and his tone suggesting that Harrison should have known his name.

"Cisco," Harrison repeated. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was just minding my own business and suddenly I was here…wherever here is."

"So you're not Dr. Wells then," Cisco surmised.

"I—I am Dr. Wells," the dark haired young man muttered, a look of confusion in his eyes. "Dr. Harrison Wells."

"This," Cisco said, holding up a hand, "is weird."

The moment was interrupted by a loud shriek. Harrison and Cisco both jumped out of their skins, turning away from each other to see Caitlin standing in the doorway, holding her hands up to her mouth, her chocolate colored curls framing her pale face. Holding out a shaky finger, she said, "Y-you're walking! H-how?"

"Uhhhh," the two young men said with hesitation, looking at each other.

"What's going on here?"

Behind Caitlin sat Dr. Wells—well, the other Dr. Wells—in his wheelchair.

Cisco let out a little scream, jumping and spinning around to look at the Wells in the wheelchair, to the Wells standing in the center of the cortex, and back to the other. He held out a shaky finger and breathed, "Whoa…doppelgangers?"

Dr. Wells rolled forward and put a finger up to his lips thoughtfully at the sight of his doppelganger. "Well this is interesting," he muttered, almost to himself.

"I guess you could put it that way," Harrison said faintly, staring in return.

"May I ask how you got here?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Where is—here?" Harrison retorted, looking around in a dazed manner.

"You are in STAR Labs," his look-alike replied.

Harrison's mouth fell open and he looked around in renewed wonder.

"STAR…Labs," he breathed. Then he let out a laugh. "Scientific Technological Advanced Research Laboratories…I actually did it—or _will_ do it I suppose ."

That made sense. Perhaps he was in the future. The young man had no idea how he had managed to time travel or why, but at the moment it seemed the most viable answer. Dr. Wells tilted his head with curiosity and rubbed his lip thoughtfully.

"Dr. Wells," he addressed the younger version of himself, sounding out the name as though he had never heard it before. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Well," Harrison muttered, trailing off slightly, trying to reach into his memory and figure out what happened. "I was on the waterfront with Tess…" he trailed off as another wave of guilt hit him. He shoved it aside, trying to focus on the task at hand. Things were becoming foggier in his mind. "We were talking about building STAR Labs, and this thing appeared."

"What 'thing'?" Dr. Wells asked, rolling forward slightly in his chair. He was leaning forward, hanging onto every single one of Harrison's disjointed words. He had a hand resting on his chin and his green eyes shone bright through his glasses.

Harrison delved into his memories, attempting to find words to describe what he saw. Suddenly, something intruded in on his mind.

" _Let go of me!"_

 _It was dark and he was struggling against two hooded figures._

" _I'm sorry," said a man that stood before him, wearing a lab coat and glasses. He had sandy blonde hair and a square face. Suddenly he started forward, thrust a knife into his side, threw out his hands, and a portal just like the one that sent him into the future appeared. "I can't do that."_

 _And with that the hooded figures tossed him through the portal and everything went black._

Harrison stood in the center of STAR Labs frozen, unsure of what he just saw.

"Dr. Wells?" Caitlin asked nervously, stepping forward slightly. When she said this, both of their heads turned. "Are you all right?"

"Can't we just call this one something other than Dr. Wells?" Cisco asked. "I'm gonna get confused. We could just call him Harry."

"Harrison," he corrected. "Call me Harrison. Only my parents call me Harry."

"Ok, well, _Harrison_ ," Cisco indicated to the younger Wells, "Dr. Wells," he indicated to the older, "I don't know what's going on, but I'm gonna get to work."

The young man didn't mind all that much that these people weren't bothering him or trying to press him to tell them more. Content to go and figure out his situation, he made his way towards the door, but as he walked past his older doppelganger, the man held out a hand.

"What are you doing?" Harrison asked.

"You cannot leave this facility," Dr. Wells said quietly. "I am a very infamous man in this time. If people see you walking around…"

"They would be just a little overwhelmed," Harrison finished.

"So you understand why you have to stay here," Dr. Wells asked, receiving a nod. "And another thing. This—is your future. If you find out too much, it may disrupt the timeline. If you stay here and listen in to anything that's going on, you—have—to—repeat—everything—the—exact—same—way. _Do you understand me_? Otherwise there's no telling what disasters may happen."

Harrison observed the very serious man sitting before him, wondering what happened to him that made him like this—almost like an entirely different person.

"All right," he nodded nonchalantly, and walked to the door. "Where am I going to sleep?"

…

"So there are two of Dr. Wells?" Barry asked, looking efficiently confused. Harrison and his counterpart nodded. Barry Allen was a young man—also slightly younger than Harrison from what he'd guess. He was tall, thin, and had light brown hair.

"And we don't know why?" the speedster continued, receiving two affirmatives. "So we're helping send him back."

Cisco, Kaitlin, and the two Wells shared looks.

"He is just staying here until he figures out how to get home," Dr. Wells replied.

Barry looked between the four of them, asking, "What? We can help him! Five heads are better than one."

"It's fine," Harrison muttered, holding up his hands. "I prefer to work alone."

"Guys," Barry tried, turning to the others.

Dr. Wells looked resolute, but Cisco and Caitlin looked at each other thoughtfully.

"Barry _is_ right," Caitlin finally said. "We have some of the best minds here at STAR Labs. If we work together, we can find something out together. Let us help you."

Harrison crossed his arms and looked around at all of them. He rubbed his lip. He ran his hands through his hair making it even messier than before.

"Fine," he finally said. "I just—I don't want to see too much."

Dr. Wells gave him a nod.

"We can't help that," Cisco said. "You're here—you'll end up seeing stuff anyways."

"I guess," Harrison muttered, not really believing the man but not quite in the mood to argue.

"Well," Barry smiled. "It looks like we're a team. Dr. Wells helped me after the particle accelerator blew—now it's my turn to help him by helping you."

Harrison shook his head, unsure of if he even deserved help.

* * *

 **Most of you probably saw that one coming! I just couldn't resist myself! Please review you thoughts.**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter...nor do I own the Flash.**

* * *

 **Chapter Four:**

Harrison was very glad that he had already spent his entire adult life surrounded by No-Maj's. Of course he still practiced magic—it was an extension of himself. If he did not use his magic, it would be like someone having a perfectly working arm and not using it. The good thing about living around No-Maj's constantly was that it taught him how to hide his powers very effectively.

When he was staying in his apartment, he was alone. Other than the maid or landlady popping in, he saw nothing but his home sized lab and his science experiments. In STAR Labs, however, this was not the case. Cisco and Caitlin showed up in the room he was sleeping in at the most random times to ask him questions. Then there were the moments when he was in STAR Labs all by himself and suddenly the Flash came zooming in to help save people around the city, at which point Cisco and Caitlin would show up and give him moral pep-talks over his com system.

Finally, there was the older version of himself. He was very distant and somehow managed to get around in that wheelchair without making a single sound—aka, he popped out of nowhere and it freaked the hell out of Harrison. The man was also slightly unnerving because every time they were in a room together, the Wells that belonged in that timeline always stared at Harrison as though he was trying to dissect him with his eyes—to see his past and determine where he was truly from. Harrison had never expected he would ever think a sentence such as this, but he creeped himself out—no doubt about it.

For this reason, Harrison stayed away from his future self.

Now the young man knew he was supposed to stay within STAR Labs. If anyone saw him walking, when the present Dr. Wells was paralyzed, he could only imagine that it would not end well. Besides that, what would he say if someone struck up a conversation with him? That he was not the current Wells and had no idea what was going on? It just seemed easier to stay hidden. Nevertheless, Harrison needed to make a trip into the Wizarding World—he almost wondered if he had gotten there by magical means. In that case, science would not help him figure out what was going on.

The young man had already begun compiling scientific theory books on time travel and multiple dimensions, but sadly there was not a lot of work done on those subjects—and none that was proven for certain. The closest man that would be able to help him that he had found was Professor Martin Stein—who had been missing for over nine months.

On the other hand, Harrison knew for a fact that there were multiple teams of "Scholars" in the Wizarding World that were investigating more on time travel past time-turners. Word was that a time-turner had been invented that could turn back time further than a few hours. So, Harrison decided it was time to re-emerge in the Wizarding World. Since he isolated himself from them twenty years before in this timeline, Harrison figured it probably would not hurt if anyone saw him there. Early one morning, Harrison left STAR Labs before the others arrived and went into a back alley that was deserted. There, he turned on his heels and disappeared with a _CRACK_!

…

It was mid-October in New York City; it was only slightly nippy. Some New Yorkers were walking around in plain long sleeves while others wore thick jackets to protect them from the winds that blew dry leaves across the street. Amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life, one man blended into the crowd and walked unnoticed. Whereas in Central City, he would have immediately been recognized, here Dr. Harrison Wells was like a ghost.

The young man navigated his way through the city, heading for Chinatown. There, he walked around, looking at the windows of shops, until he reached Doyers Street. The messy haired man walked down the sidewalk, reaching a very sharp bend in the road. There, between two shops, was where he was headed—it was the entrance to Perrantes Alley, a small alcove at the front of which hung a sign that read "Perrantes Alley". The entire little alleyway, sign and all, had charms on them to where only magical beings would be able to notice it at all.

However, when Harrison came to a halt at the junction where the entrance should have been, there was nothing. No alcove—no sign. People still passed around him, taking no notice of the man that stood before the threshold of a world that should have been there. Was the entrance blocked? Destroyed? Had they moved it?

Desperate, Harrison quickly cast a disillusionment charm on himself and then turned to the wall where the two shops met. He held his wand out, canvassing the entire wall, searching for magical residue. Perhaps if he figured out what happened to the entrance, he would be able to find the new one. Yet when he finished his scanning spells, they revealed nothing. There was no magical residue of any sorts on that wall.

"This isn't right," Harrison whispered to himself. Theoretically, even if the entrance had moved, it should still contain very high levels of magical residue. "No," he whispered, stunned and confused. Then, he slammed his fists on the wall and roared, " _No!_ "

Thinking fast, he disapparated once more, reappearing in Belmont, Nevada. This was a supposed ghost-town full of wizarding houses warded against No-Maj's. Inside an old saloon was an entrance to another alley, the Western Alley. Harrison, having apparated directly to the saloon, walked inside and looked around. Once again, there was no entrance—no trace of magic.

"They can't have closed or moved _two_ alleys," Harrison muttered, his eyebrows drawn together. Ready to try one last attempt, Harrison pulled a tissue out of his pocket, muttering, " _Portus_."

The tissue glowed, and then the young man disappeared, reappearing in London. He ran to where the Leaky Cauldron should have been located—only to find that it too was missing.

"They're all gone," he breathed.

Either the Wizarding World was completely eradicated within the past twenty years, or something more was going on than he had initially realized.

…

"Where have you been?"

Harrison, who had just returned to STAR Labs and was walking through the main room, stopped and turned to see Dr. Wells looked at him. He was sitting in his wheelchair in front of a chess table. Harrison sighed and ran his hands through his hair. Then, he staggered back slightly as a blur sped in front of him and Barry came to a halt in front of the table.

"Nowhere," he replied.

Barry sped off again to continue playing ping pong with Cisco.

"I thought I made it clear that you _cannot_ leave STAR Labs!" his older self said quietly. Harrison turned to see Barry speed over to take his turn in his game of Operation with Caitlin, bantering with her, before speeding back to the ping pong table. "Now let me ask again. Where were you?"

"Gathering information," Harrison replied. "Trying to find out more about how I got here. Trust me, no one saw me, if that's what you are worried about."

Barry ran back over to the chess table and Harrison stepped out of the way again.

"I'm waiting on you, Dr. Wells," Barry grinned.

"What is the point to all this?" Harrison asked with curiosity, gesturing to the four of them.

"To have fun!" Barry exclaimed, playing ping pong once more while Dr. Wells had his turn.

"And to test his ability at multitasking," Dr. Wells corrected, contemplating his move.

With that, Barry made a hit at the ping pong ball, sped over to remove another object from the Operation board, and then sped back.

"Checkmate," Dr. Wells called.

In an instant, Barry was standing over the board, saying, "Wait, checkmate?"

"Checkmate," his mentor confirmed. "It seems we still have a few things left to learn, don't we, Mr. Allen?"

Cisco returned the ping pong ball while Barry was distracted, and then turned to Caitlin to smirk at Dr. Well's remark. Then, he caught sight of the screen beside him and turned to Barry, calling, "Armed robbery at Fourth and Kolins!"

"For the record, I killed it at Operation and Ping Pong," Barry stated before disappearing in a flash.

"Is it always like this around him?" Harrison asked, walking up to Cisco.

Cisco smiled. "Still not used to him speeding off, huh?"

Harrison shook his head. He followed Cisco and Caitlin who moved to where the desk full of computers sat. Dr. Wells rolled up and joined them.

" _Where's the nearest hospital_?" came Barry's voice over the com system.

"St. Andrews," Caitlin replied after a bit of quick typing. "Seven blocks north, two east."

" _Call them and tell them they have an incoming GSW!_ "

They watched the trackers on the suit run up to the hospital and then run back. Barry came in and dropped off the suit before running off again. Caitlin let out a sigh of relief and Cisco stood up.

"So this is what you guys do?" Harrison asked, looking at Dr. Wells. "Save people?"

…

The next morning Harrison lay in bed contemplating what he saw the day before—all of the places where witches and wizards came together in one place. While he did so, he was making his pen float around in front of him. One thing he had enjoyed working on in school was wordless, wandless magic. It was something that had felt new to him—something challenging. It was the sort of skill that one had to practice every day in order to keep up the power levels to perform it. It calmed him, feeling his magic rush through his body, extending out through his mind and touching the world around him.

"Hey, Harrison!" Harrison quickly grabbed the pen in his hand, just in time for Cisco to walk in. "You busy?"

"Kind of," Harrison replied, still staring up at the ceiling.

"…You're just laying on your bed," Cisco laughed.

"I'm thinking," the messy-haired man replied.

"Yeah, about that," Cisco said, knowing that Harrison would be thinking of his predicament. "I was wondering if we could talk. I have an idea."

Harrison sat up.

"Yeah, I see why he likes you," he said, referring to his counterpart. "You're very smart."

"I'll take that as a yes," the long-haired fellow muttered, leading Harrison out of the room and into his station where he performed most of his work. As he did so, he continued, "So I was reading a Dr. Martin Stein's theses on time travel, and it mentioned something about how if you can reach terminal velocity, you could theoretically rip a hole in time. It got me thinking—you know with Barry's speed and all—maybe we could somehow make a machine that essentially does the same thing."

"A time machine?" Harrison's eyebrows rose by at least an inch.

"Well, yeah," Cisco said.

"How would it work?"

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure about that yet," the gadget-guy replied. Harrison looked very ticked off. "—but I was thinking between you, me, and Dr. Wells we could think of something. Any ideas?"

"Hm," Harrison hummed, putting his hand up to his chin thoughtfully. How could they get a machine to reach a speed of terminal velocity? Could they somehow power it with the Flash's speed?

Suddenly, his train of thoughts was interrupted by voices to their left. He and Cisco popped their heads out to see Barry leading some strange woman around.

"And this is where we monitor criminal activity," he was saying. "The CTC scanners can track anything that's happening in this city. Check this out: We've got our own satellite."

Cisco walked over to where Caitlin was standing in the room and Harrison followed.

"I know," the blonde girl replied. "I've hacked into it from time to time."

"Rude," Cisco muttered.

"It is, of course, so wonderful to see you, Felicity," Caitlin said, walking forward. "I'm just wondering how much of our operations she should know about."

"I'm really good at keeping secrets," Felicity said, her earrings swaying as she did so.

"She works with the Arrow," Barry explained with a smile.

"Sweet!" Cisco explained.

"And you are not," Felicity muttered, continuing her line about secrets.

"I'm sorry, but who is this?" Harrison asked, stepping forward.

"Oh, Harrison, this is Felicity Smoak," Barry clarified. "I met her in Starling City."

"Right," Harrison muttered. "Because we are in Central City."

"Harrison Wells?" Felicity asked, staring at him like one would stare at their favorite celebrity. " _The_ Harrison Wells?"

Harrison froze, another voice echoing in his mind _"Harry Potter?_ The _Harry Potter?"_ He shook his head and the thoughts cleared away as a voice said, "Actually, I'm the one you would be looking for, Miss Smoak."

They all jumped and turned to see Dr. Wells sitting in the doorway.

"There's two of them?" Felicity gaped, turning from Dr. Wells, back to Harrison, and then over to Dr. Wells again.

"Yes," Dr. Wells replied. "Two of us. Another secret I hope you don't mind keeping, Felicity."

"You know who I am?"

As Dr. Wells rolled towards them, he said, "Ranked second in the National Informative Technology Competition at age 19. Graduated from MIT with degrees in cyber-technology and computer sciences. I know who you are." He came to a halt just before them. "I keep an eye out for promising talent in scientific fields. That's what brought me Cisco and Caitlin, and I foresaw," he smiled at her and took off his glasses, "great things from you."

"Speaking of great things," Barry said. "Wanna see something cool?"

…

While the dream team and Felicity Smoak were discussing how Barry was adjusting to becoming the Flash, Harrison slunk off back to his bedroom, pulling out his enormous books on time travel. With a flick of his wrist, the pages started turning themselves for him as he scanned each one of them.

It seemed that while the other him was afraid that he would go out and get spotted, the young man didn't even have to leave the building for that to happen. Harrison snorted, vowing to himself that when he built STAR Labs, he would build it with way better security. The fact that so many unauthorized people could waltz in and out regularly was laughable. At least this time it wasn't anyone who could do harm—just another person on their side.

But what side was he on? Strictly speaking, he was on the side of science. His experiments and Tess were all that mattered to him. Why fix the world's problems one by one when you can come up with a scientific cure that canvasses all of them? He would rather spend his days in a lab forming the future instead of out there every day risking his own life for people that weren't even worth it.

That was not what Barry and his friends thought. They thought that every single thing they did counted for something. But did it really? Harrison shook his head. He knew that his counterpart only played along because it made Barry happy. Otherwise, he was sure that he would be much happier researching what was happening to Barry, and forming cures, and new laws and equations…

Harrison shut the book. He was too distracted to read at the moment. He made his way out of his room and up to where Caitlin sat at a computer, going over files on Barry.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked.

Caitlin turned and looked at him.

"Oh, it's you," she said. "You sound just like our Dr. Wells."

"Well we are the same person," Harrison laughed.

He grabbed a chair and pulled it up.

"So what did you want to ask me?" Caitlin asked.

"Well," Harrison took off his glasses and looked down, rubbing them with his shirt. "I want to know why you guys all insist on fighting crime. I mean—" he glanced up. "Why do you do it? Personally."

"I really feel like I'm making a difference," she said. "You see—when the particle accelerator blew up, it sent out a wave of dark matter that essentially created all of the metahumans—including Barry. That was our fault. And helping catch them and rehabilitate them…it feels like I'm setting things straight."

Harrison glanced up at her again and nodded, looking back down at his glasses. He put them back on, muttering, "Thanks."

"Why did you ask?" Caitlin queried.

"Well," he hesitated again. "I understand wanting to help people—I want to help people too, I really do, I just…" he trailed off. "I don't know if I could ever be like you guys. I can't—I'm not really the best at social interactions, and…"

"Well you've seen Dr. Wells haven't you?" Caitlin asked. "He helps Barry so much—he's a part of our team. That will be you one day." Harrison nodded. "And if you want, you can be a part of our team for now—at least until we find a way to send you home."

The scientist nodded, getting to his feet.

"Thanks, again."

"Anytime," she replied, a sympathetic look in her eyes.

He got to his feet and turned to walk back to his room when a strangled yell met his ears. He turned and looked at Caitlin, who jumped to her feet.

"Guys?!" came Cisco's voice.

Without thinking, the two of them ran towards the sounds of Cisco's surprised shouts.

…

"How long has it been missing?" Dr. Wells asked Cisco.

They were standing in a storage room in the lower levels of STAR Labs. Before them was an empty cage where something had previously been stored. Standing in the doorway, watching, were Caitlin and Harrison.

"I don't know," Cisco said slowly, a look of terrified devastation on his face.

"I'm gonna ask you again, Cisco," Dr. Wells said quietly, "and when I do I expect a more specific answer than _'I don't know_ '. Now, how long has this weapon been gone?"

He rolled forward until he was hardly a foot away from Cisco.

"A day," Cisco guessed. "Maybe two. One of the janitors didn't show up for work this morning. He's probably the one that took it. I didn't think that—"

Dr. Wells slammed the padlocked door to the empty container shut, his eyes like icy daggers. Next to Harrison, Caitlin visibly jumped.

"You didn't think," he whispered. "Because if you had, you would have discussed _with me_ first your desire to build something that could in theory hurt anyone, and in particular, _Barry Allen!_ "

As he spoke, his voice continuously grew louder. Cisco stared straight ahead, his eyes full of tears. He looked much like a child would when their parent scolds them. His jaw was locked and although he looked upset, he also had a determined look in his eye.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly. "If you'd just let me explain—"

"You know how I feel about weapons, Cisco," Dr. Wells said, quieter again. "They do not belong in STAR Labs. Now, you are going to figure out a way to locate that gun and you are gonna do it right now."

Caitlin and Harrison stepped to the side as Dr. Wells rolled away, looking righteously angered. Cisco didn't move. He swallowed heavily and blinked the tears out of his eyes.

"This weapon," Caitlin started. "What exactly can it do?"

"Bad stuff," Cisco whispered.

"Come on," Harrison whispered, putting an arm around Cisco's shoulders and leading him out of the room. "We'll get it back."

Cisco swallowed again and nodded.

…

"Snart wasn't another metahuman," Barry explained, carefully lowering his shirt back over the giant whelp of frostbite in his side and walking around. "He had some sort of weapon. It froze things. It slowed me down. Enough that I wasn't in time to save someone."

"According to his records, Snart didn't even bother to finish high school," Felicity added. "So how did he build a hand-held, high tech snow machine?"

Caitlin looked over at Harrison, who looked at Cisco, who met Dr. Well's gaze.

"STAR Labs built the cold gun," Dr. Wells said coldly, looking down as he said it and then looking back up, fiddling with something in his hands.

"Dr. Wells and Caitlin had nothing to do with it," Cisco added. "I built the gun."

Barry stared at him. He glanced at Wells as if for confirmation, and then asked, "You did? Why?"

"Because speed and cold are opposites," Cisco explained. "Temperature is measured by how quickly the atoms of something are oscillating. The faster they are, the hotter it is. When things are cold, they're slower on the atomic level. When there's no movement at all, it's called—"

"Absolute zero," Barry finished for him.

"Yeah," Cisco affirmed. "I designed a compact cryo-engine to achieve absolute zero. I built it to stop you. I-I-I didn't know who you were then, Barry. I-I mean, what if you had turned out like Martin? Or Nimbus?"

"But I didn't, did I?" Barry shouted.

"We built the entire structure you're standing in to do good," Caitlin tried to explain, "and it blew up. In the wake of that, you can understand why Cisco would want to be prepared for the worst."

"I can understand that, but what I can't understand is why you didn't tell me sooner? I mean, after all we've been through? I thought you trusted me! I thought we were friends."

"We are, Barry—"

"—if you had just told me I could've been prepared. But instead someone died tonight."

"I know," Cisco pleaded. "And I'm gonna have to live with that for the rest of my life."

"No, Cisco. We all do."

And with that he stormed out of the room.

…

"I figured out a way to trap Captain Cold," Cisco announced as he entered the room.

"You've gotta stop naming these guys," Caitlin muttered.

They looked up at Barry, who was staring resolutely at the computer screen.

"Barry," Dr. Wells said, "listen to him."

Barry let out a huff and turned to face Cisco, his arms still crossed.

"How?" he asked.

"The cold gun is powered by an engine-control unit. A microcomputer that regulates air-to-fuel ratio so that the sub-cooled fluid in the chambers don't overflow and—"

"Explode," Felicity concurred.

"Right!" the long haired man pointed to her enthusiastically. "This ECU was receiving updates wirelessly from my tablet. If I boost the signal using Central City's network, and send a false update, then we'll get a ping back and then—"

"We can locate Snart," both Wells concluded.

They locked eyes and gave each other a look. Breaking the contact, the older Dr. Wells looked to Barry.

"How long will it take?" the speedster asked.

"Uh, first I have to hack into the city's network, so…" Cisco trailed off, bending over the computer and looking at it. "I don't know…thirty minutes, maybe?"

"I can do it in less than one," Felicity chimed. She sat down in a chair in front of her laptop and cracked her knuckles. "When it comes to hacking, I'm the fastest woman alive." She pecked away for a few seconds, and then said, "All right! I'm in."

"Are you kidding?" Caitlin asked.

"All right, I'm sending the update now," Cisco said with a grin. "We're connected."

"Network is triangulating the location," the blonde girl informed them.

"We got him," Caitlin said. "He's heading west on Nelson towards the train station."

"If he's leaving, it appears Mr. Snart has what he came for," Dr. Wells observed.

Barry disappeared and then reappeared wearing his suit.

"When we put our minds to it, dude, nothing can stop us!" the long haired young man grinned. Barry reached up beside his ear and touched a little lightning bolt on the side of the mask. Cisco's smile fell. "Oh, you turned your earpiece off. How are we going to talk to each other?"

"I don't feel like talking right now," Barry muttered, and then whizzed off.

Harrison crossed his arms and Dr. Wells rolled over to watch Barry's location on the large screen. Cisco was monitoring the suit and Caitlin was monitoring Barry's vitals.

"You should go after him," Felicity said.

"He said he didn't want to talk right now," Cisco muttered, pecking on the keyboard.

"He wants to do this alone," Caitlin added.

"Of course he said that. He's hurt. You're his team and his friends. If I had a nickel for every time the Arrow told me to back off, I'd be as rich as Oliver Queen. Who I mentioned because he's the richest person I know—or used to be."

"I think we should do it," Harrison said from behind them, his arms still crossed. Caitlin and Cisco turned to look at him in surprise. "Sometimes I act like I want to be alone, but it's not what's best for me—or anyone for that matter."

Cisco grinned. "I have something that might help."

He and Caitlin stood up, joining Harrison, and the three of them turned to head out. Dr. Wells turned his wheelchair around.

"You can't just go out there," he told Harrison. "Someone will see you—"

"What do you suggest?" Harrison asked sardonically. "A mask?"

…

"This is so annoying. I can't believe people actually willingly wear masks on a regular basis," Harrison muttered, adjusting his mask with one hand for the umpteenth time.

Cisco and Caitlin shared a looked.

"Dr. Wells whining," Cisco laughed, "that's not something we get to experience every day."

"Don't get used to it," Harrison muttered. "Oh, God, my voice sounds so stupid through this."

Cisco and Caitlin both laughed. Harrison would have glared at them, if they could have seen him in that dark lighting.

"So where are we going?" Cisco asked.

" _He's on the move_ ," Felicity informed them. " _Judging by the speed—they're on a train. Head north!_ "

Harrison slammed on the gas and pulled his wheel as sharply as it would go, causing the STAR Labs truck to turn onto a back road, wobbling slightly from side to side.

"Do you mind not killing us?!" Cisco shouted.

"I'm sorry I can't hear you!" Harrison shouted sarcastically.

" _Okay, they've stopped moving_."

"I see them!" Cisco shouted.

Harrison slammed on the brakes and they all jerked forward, their seatbelts locking in place. Harrison put the truck in park and they all leapt out of it, running to where they could see flashes of yellow and ice-blue. By the time they skidded to a halt, panting, Barry was on the ground and Captain Cold was shooting more ice at him.

"You're pretty fast, kid," Snart said, "but not fast enough. Thank you."

"For what?" Barry spit out.

"You forced me to up my game," Snart replied. "Not only with this gun, but also how I think about the job. It's been educational."

"Drop it!" Cisco shouted, aiming a large object that looked similar to Cold's. It was glowing blue in places and made a whooshing sound as he cocked it. Snart turned to face him, not lowering his gun. "This is a prototype cold gun," Cisco said, pointing it at him. "Four times the size, four times the power."

"I was wondering who you were talking to," Snart said, turning back to the Flash, who was still rendered helpless on the ground.

"Hey, unless you want a taste of your own medicine, put the gun down!" Cisco growled.

"Your hands are shaking," Snart said coolly. "You've never killed anyone in your life."

"There's a first time for everything, Captain Cold," Cisco retorted, his eyes narrowed with determination. Cold raised his head slightly and smiled, as though about to laugh. "I will shoot you."

Snart smiled and turned back to Barry. After a pause, he said, "You win kid," raising the gun above his shoulder. "I'll see you around."

As he started walking away, Cisco shouted, "Hey! Leave the diamond."

"Don't push your luck," Cold muttered without glancing back.

As soon as he was gone, Harrison and Caitlin set down the giant metal contraption that Cisco's "gun" was hooked up to, and the tall young man pulled off his mask, rubbing his hand through his hair and down his face.

"I wouldn't have been able to shoot him if I wanted to," Cisco told Barry. "This is actually the STAR Labs vacuum cleaner." Cisco laughed, "With a lot of LEDs."

"It does look convincing though," Harrison laughed.

"Let's get you warm," Caitlin said, helping Barry to his feet.

"Hey, man," Barry said, clapping Harrison on the shoulder. "Thanks for coming and helping me. Both of you."

Cisco clasped his hand and shook it with a smile.

…

"We've been trying to track Snart, but…" Cisco trailed off. "He must've disconnected the signal somehow."

"We'll find him, Cisco," Barry said. "Together."

Cisco smiled and walked over to where Harrison was standing.

"It was a good thing you made us get out there and help Barry," Cisco said to him. "Don't know where he'd be if we hadn't."

"Probably dead," he replied.

"Ah, and there's that Dr. Wells optimism!" Cisco joked, clapping Harrison on the shoulder. "Glad you found a purpose. Maybe you can get out more with that mask."

"Yeah," Harrison laughed. "So long as no one mistakes me for an evil metahuman."

"No, then I'd have to come up with a name for you."

"Please, don't ever," Harrison muttered.

"Well it looks like you have a nice team here, Barry," Felicity said with a smile. "And speaking of teams, I should get back to mine."

"Send the Arrow our regards, Miss Smoak," Dr. Wells said.

"I will," she replied. "Bye, Barry."

The two of them hugged.

"Bye, Felicity," he responded.

She walked out of the room, her blonde curls bouncing behind her.

"She's a remarkable young woman," Dr. Wells remarked with a fatherly smile.

"Yeah," Barry agreed. "She is."

He followed her out with Caitlin. Harrison walked over to the stack of papers Cisco had printed out for him and made his way to the door. On his way out, he overheard Dr. Wells saying, "Cisco, don't you ever do anything like that again, do you understand me?"

Harrison paused for the briefest seconds and looked back to see Dr. Wells sitting there with one hand clamped firmly on Cisco's arm, his eyes burning like fire once more. It unnerved Harrison how quickly he had transitioned from laughing to… _that_.

"Goodnight you two," he said with a wave and a yawn covering his unease very well.

"Goodnight," Wells replied with a warm smile and a wave. His smile fell and his eyes fixed on Cisco again, waiting for an answer.

"Yes, sir," Cisco replied.

With one last look, Dr. Wells wheeled away leaving two unnerved young men in that building.

* * *

 **Aaaand the Wizarding World has disappeared! Also, Harrison is beginning to cotton on that something is off about the older (creepy) Wells. Perrantes Alley was my own creation. I figured that the world would need more than just the one place to buy things (especially because in there books, there is no mention of foreigners regularly filling Diagon Alley).**

 **If you haven't been able to guess yet, yes he is currently on Earth One. No he is not from Earth One. (And yes, the Wells in the wheelchair is Eobard).That is as much as I will divulge at this point. I've been trying to maintain a good balance between chunks of the original episodes and my own flairs-to make it more interesting. Please review!**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter of the Flash**

 **Nor do I own Ilvermorny. Since I don't think we have descriptions still, this is the image of the place I have made for myself in my head. I figured it would be a bit more modern, and a bit more American :)**

* * *

 **Chapter Five:**

 _Ilvermorny was beautiful. Harrison had no idea what he had been expecting, but it was certainly not the very large white building with hundreds of windows, multiple buildings, and multiple floors. The dormitories had their own buildings—each house separate. There were gardens, greenhouses, and terraces. All around were mountains, creating a green, lush valley for the school to house in._

 _Harrison had no idea why, but he had been expecting something more like a castle. It had been odd enough riding to school in busses, surrounded by children his age—each age group had their own bus. The eleven-year-old boy sat by himself, looking out the window; the other children were walking up and down the aisle, talking to each other—making friends and enemies. After Harrison had seen enough scenery, he had pulled out an enormous book on mathematics._

" _Whatcha reading?" one boy asked, sitting beside him._

" _Mathematics," Harrison replied._

" _Oh, you mean like one plus one?"_

" _No," the messy haired boy replied, "I mean polynomial functions." The boy gave him a blank look. "You know? 2x_ _4_ _+3x_ _2_ _+x+24?"_

" _Okay…" the boy nodded faintly, getting to his feet and walking away._

…

Harrison figured that if the Wizarding World had been obliterated, at least some of it would have leaked onto No-Maj news. There were two options to what would have happened—either the No-Maj's found out about magic and wiped the magic users out, or there was some sort of war and they wiped each other out.

If the first option was true, then at one point in time within the past twenty years, something about them would have been all over the news. If the second option was true, it would be a bit more difficult to figure out, but there would probably be things like unexplained gas explosions and unknown dead bodies.

Therefore, one night when he had STAR Labs to himself, Harrison got on one of the computers and spent the entire night flicking through online news, article after article. Finally around four in the morning, he came to the conclusion that nothing happened other than daily drama, the particle accelerator explosion, and the first few metahumans found. There was no mention of witches discovered—no mention of unexplained happenings. It was as if the Wizarding World never existed…but that wasn't possible, was it?

Harrison shook his head, contemplating this. Perhaps he was in an alternate timeline? Maybe the Wizarding World was discovered before the past fifteen years. This time, instead of looking up news, he researched things about witches—witches discovered, unexplained events happening. There was still nothing.

What was he missing?

The messy-haired young man sighed and deleted his search history. With that, he wandered down to his room and fell onto his bed, throwing his glasses onto the bedside table. Using magic to turn out the lights, he fell asleep almost instantly.

…

 _Harrison was in Ilvermorny again, surrounded by the long hallways, portraits, and statues. He held a stack of schoolbooks in his hand and wore a backpack full of notebooks and parchment. For years he had forgone his old, round glasses and had donned a pair that were square instead—they suited him much better._

 _However, he still got called "four eyes". Children passed him in the hallway, unzipping his backpack so his parchment rolled all over the floor. They knocked the books out of his hands, which scattered across the hallway._

 _When Harrison had been found on the beach, he was a very friendly, kind child who held lots of love and courage. Since then, being alone had changed him. He was distant—used to working alone. The messy-haired boy learned to have quick wit and a sharp tongue to protect him from his enemies._

" _Wells! Get your head out of the clouds!"_

 _Suddenly the dream changed. He was in a dark room and a light was shining directly in his face._

...

Cisco stood in the dark doorway of Harrison's room. He reached to the right and switched on the lights.

"Get away from me," Harrison was muttering. "Let me go!"

"Are you still asleep?" Cisco asked, edging forward. Suddenly Harrison's eyes snapped open. Cisco let out a yelp. "Yup! You were asleep."

Harrison groaned and threw himself on his stomach, pulling his pillow over his head.

"I _was_ ," he muttered grumpily.

"It's seven o'clock, man," the other one informed him. Harrison groaned again. "Time to get up. Dr. Wells wants to talk to all of us."

"No."

"Excuse me?" Cisco asked, pointing to his chest.

" _No_ ," his tall friend repeated. "Just let me sleep."

"Did you not hear me?" the long haired young man asked. "I said Dr. Wells wants us, Pronto." Harrison did not move. "I'm sorry to do this, but—"

Cisco reached forward, yanked the blankets off the bed, grabbed Harrison by the ankle, and pulled—hard.

"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing his head, which hit the side of the bed as his butt slammed onto the floor. He reached up, grabbed his glasses, and put them on, glaring daggers at Cisco.

"Late night?" Cisco asked as Harrison got to his feet.

The messy-haired young man continued to glare at his friend and grumbled, "I guess you could put it that way. What does Dr. Wells want anyway?"

"Said something about you," Cisco replied with a shrug. "Come on."

The two guys walked out and up into the main room where Dr. Wells was sitting in his wheelchair behind the computers. Caitlin and Barry were standing before him.

"I am sure you are wondering why I called this little powwow," he said with his usual tight smile.

"Yeah," Cisco replied, slurping a slushy he had left by one of the computers.

"Cisco told me he had an idea of how to send my double back to his own time. Cisco?"

"Uh, yeah," the long haired young man said. "I have thought up the design of a machine that would essentially act as a time machine," he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and showed a drawing of a round contraption. "The only thing is that it would have to be powered with your speed," he looked at Barry.

"That's fine," Barry replied. "Anything to help."

"How long will it take to build?" Harrison asked.

"Three months?" Cisco postulated. His face scrunched up as he thought for a second. "Six months? I'm fifty-two percent certain it will take three to six months."

"Fifty two percent?" Barry asked.

"Well—if something doesn't work the way it's supposed to…" he trailed off. " _And_ the percentage is affected depending on how many people help."

"I will," both Wells replied.

There was a pause. Cisco's eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he thought again. "I'm sixty-three percent certain I can get it done in under six months," he amended, clapping his hands together. "All right!"

…

Harrison suspected he would become nocturnal soon if this carried on much longer. He had been enjoying a quiet evening by himself—the others were out having fun lives—working on equations for Cisco's time machine.

He sighed and scratched his head, scribbled on the clear dry-erase board, and then sighed some more. Finally, he was just beginning to get somewhere with his equations. That was when there was a rustling in the room before him and a red blur. Walking forward out of the room he was in, Harrison called out, "Barry?"

He looked down and saw the speedster lying on his side, curled up in a ball.

"What did you do?" he asked, kneeling beside the younger man.

…

"I ran into a big, bad man," Barry muttered, laying on the patient bed in the adjacent room while Caitlin patched him up. His hand was shattered so bad the entire thing was being held in place by wires and metal rods. "His skin changed when I hit him. Like it turned to metal."

"Interesting," Dr. Wells said, crossing his arms.

"A man of steel," Harrison wondered in a deferential tone.

"So you went after a metahuman," Cisco said, walking toward Barry. "Alone. Dude, why didn't you call us?"

"I didn't know what he was," Barry groaned. "Besides. I was…off duty."

Caitlin raised her eyebrows.

"You're lucky he didn't knock out your teeth," Cisco muttered. "Those puppies don't grow back."

Barry sat up with a grunt and stared at the ground, muttering, "The strange thing is, I felt like I knew him."

"What do you mean?"

"He said something that was familiar," Barry replied with a shake of his head. "But he's gonna hurt someone. How do I stop a man of steel?"

"We will find a way," Dr. Wells assured him, "but tonight you heal."

Barry nodded and laid back down on the bed.

…

Harrison couldn't get to sleep. He tossed and turned in his bed, many thoughts popping in and out of his head. Ever since he had gotten tossed through that portal, he had been having the same strange vision over and over again—every single time he was in a dark room, bound, and fighting against dark figures. Then he would get tossed through a ripple in the air—a ripple much like the one that sent him here to these people where he couldn't understand what was going on.

Where was the Wizarding World? Had he somehow gotten sent to an alternate dimension where there were no wizards? How was that possible? Harrison rolled over again. He didn't want to think about that this late—it was too confusing. Finally, he sat up and ran his hands down his face in frustration—it seemed that sleep was not going to come to him after all. He placed his glasses on his face and checked the clock—five in the morning. He figured it was close enough to just get up.

Swinging his long legs over the side of the bed, Harrison got to his feet and stumbled out of his room with a yawn. He wandered across the room and went to his dresser where he had his meager amount of belongings stashed. Since he had come to this place with no warning and no possessions except the clothes on his back, he had been given much of it from STAR Labs. There were multitudes of STAR Labs shirts and he had bought himself things to sleep in, as well as things like a toothbrush.

Fully clothed, the young man stumbled out of the building, looking for some fresh air. Harrison paused only long enough to cast a glamor on himself so he wouldn't be recognized. Then, he made his way through the heart of the city—heading for a place where he could have some coffee. Normally he would apparate places, but he needed the walk this morning.

As he walked, the sun slowly rose above the tops of buildings, shining its pale light on the world. Over the course of the next half hour, the city seemed to come to life. More cars filled the roads, chugging along and honking their horns at each other. People filled the sidewalks, not paying attention to one another as they commuted. By the time Harrison had made it to Jitter's, it was open for the morning.

The black haired young man entered the coffee shop, ordered himself a drink, and sat down at the bar by himself. The girl who had fixed his coffee, a girl with dark skin and chocolate colored eyes, leaned against the bar with a smile.

"I've not seen you in Jitter's before," she said. "Are you new here?"

"Relatively," he replied, taking a sip of coffee.

"Well Central City _is_ a big place," she said. "I'm Iris West."

"Harrison," he replied.

"No last name?" she asked. Harrison shook his head and took another sip of his coffee, lifting his eyes to the TV. Iris continued to look at him. "You know you look familiar."

"I've heard that a lot," Harrison laughed, glad his glamor was working—it was supposed to diminish his features to where other people would just glance over them.

"Kind of like Harry Potter," Iris continued.

Harrison froze, the name striking a strange chord within him. Even though he never knew someone named Harry Potter, the name was oddly familiar…

"Who?" he asked.

"You've never heard of Harry Potter?" the girl gasped. "I should introduce you to Barry some time—he read all of them when we were little."

"Barry Allen?" Harrison asked, naming the only Barry he knew.

"You know him?" Iris asked, smiling wider.

"Yeah—we, uh—sort of work together," Harrison replied, scratching the back of his head.

"You should ask him to lend them to you," she said. "They're good."

And with that she walked away. Harrison drained the rest of his coffee and walked out of the shop. That had been a very strange encounter, he mused as he walked along. However, he was intrigued by this "Harry Potter". Apparently it was a book series. Perhaps he _should_ ask one of the others for a copy to borrow. For some odd reason, he couldn't get the name out of his head.

He shook his head and ran his hands through his hair, fluffing it up even more. It took another half hour or so to reach STAR Labs. Once there, he walked in the door, removed his glamor, and climbed in the elevator with the intention of going up to Cisco's lab and working on time equations.

Sitting in front of the elevator in his wheelchair, in the process of looking for the wayward youngster, was his doppelgänger —Harrison Wells.

"What were you doing?" Wells asked the instant he saw Harrison.

"Getting a coffee," the younger man replied, stepping off the elevator and walking over to stand before his double.

"We've talked about this—"

"I know, I know, but no one recognized me!" Harrison raised his hands in a placating manner. "I just need to get some fresh air. I've been cooped up here for too long."

"But to endanger _yourself_ and _my identity—_ "

"Look, its fine," Harrison retorted, being careful not to mention _why_ he knew no one recognized him. He felt as though he shouldn't speak of magic to the man—at least not until he figured out what was going on. A logical solution _would_ be to ask himself about it but…there was something off about the man.

"Are you sure there isn't anything you want to tell me?" Dr. Wells asked in the fatherly voice he usually reserved for Barry.

"Stop!" Harrison cried, clutching his head as unknown words and images intruded on his mind—

" _I must ask you if there is anything you want to tell me. Anything at all…"_

Harrison shook the voice out of his head and muttered, "I'm fine."

He was about to walk back to the elevator and go down to his room when it dinged and slid open to reveal Joe.

"Doctor Wells," the man said, getting off the elevator and walking to stand in front of the scientist.

"I guess you heard about Barry's incident last night," Wells replied. Harrison started toward the elevator once again. "If you are looking for him, I think he's at the station."

Harrison paused to listen when he heard Joe reply, "Actually I was looking for you. I need you help solving an old case of mine."

"And what case would that be?" Dr. Wells asked.

Joe gave Harrison a very pointed look and, taking the hint, the young man turned back around and pressed the elevator button. Discreetly, Harrison cast a wordless spell for sound enhancement and listened as Joe whispered, "The murder of Barry's mother."

The elevator dinged and slid open. Harrison sauntered inside and went down to his room, all thoughts on working on equations abandoned.

…

"Your nemesis is now a metahuman," Cisco mused aloud after Barry told them who the metahuman from the night before was—Tony Woodward, a boy Barry had known growing up. "That is seriously messed up."

"I had a childhood nemesis growing up," Caitlin muttered, nursing a warm coffee cup. "Lexie LaRoche. She used to put gum in my hair."

"Jake Puckett," Cisco chimed. "If I didn't let him copy my homework he would give me a swirly."

"Everyone in my class," Harrison muttered, leaning against the wall. "I think it had something to do with the fact that I was the only kid that took a whole bunch of extra, advanced classes."

"Well, now we've established that we're all uber-nerds," Barry interrupted, "what are we gonna do about Tony?"

"Glad you asked," Cisco grinned. "We're gonna train you, man. _Karate_ _Kid_ style."

He walked off, beaming with excitement, and the others followed a bit more slowly. They came to a stop in Barry's training room, which housed the treadmill that monitored his speed. Built beside it was a giant metal contraption that loosely resembled a person—it had a round bit on top that was shaped like a head, a square torso, and long arms that were attached with bolts to a make-shift shoulder.

"Behold," Cisco said as Barry came to a stop, looking at it. "I call him Girder."

"For the record, this was neither of our ideas," Caitlin informed Barry, pointing between herself and Harrison.

The messy-haired young man in question snorted, saying, "You got that right."

"Fighting," Cisco started, "is all about physics. It's not about strength. It's not about size. It's about energy and power. If you channel your speed the right way, you can totally take this bad boy down." Barry gave him a look as he stepped forward and grabbed a square object. "Now, obviously your Girder is going to be a moving target. So…"

He pulled the box over his head and it hung above his chest on a black strap. Switching a few buttons, the dummy came to life.

"I have ice packs and bandages standing by," Caitlin told him.

…

Harrison sat on his bed, twirling his wand between his fingers. He couldn't just stay cooped up in STAR Labs this whole time. The young man knew that the other Dr. Wells was crippled and people would freak out if they recognized him, but he was going to go crazy if he didn't get out. He needed something to distract him from…

The black-haired man sighed and stuffed his wand back in his pocket, standing up. At the very least, he needed someone to talk to. Someone he could trust. Harrison had no idea where these visions were coming from, nor why he was receiving them. There was also the problem that his past was haunting him. In the meantime, however, Harrison figured that the problem with Tony Woodward should prove distracting enough. In fact…

The young man looked down at his hand and then held it out, his face screwing up as he chanted the same word over and over in his head. The lights flickered, and then went off. He twitched his hand and the lights turned back on. Then, he made a lifting gesture and the thick textbooks on his side table lifted in the air.

They slowly floated back down and came to rest on the table and Harrison took a deep breath. He breathed out slowly and sat back down on his bed. It had been a few days since he had practiced wandless magic and feeling the rush of magic calmed him instantly, sufficiently distracting him. Then, an idea slowly crept into his head.

…

"Barry described a tornado of red and yellow lightning, and inside was a man in yellow," Joe explained to Wells, who was fiddling with a pen in one hand. "And then bam—he was out on the street, doesn't know how he got there. When I arrived, the places was a wreck—"

"Nora Allen was dead—" Wells surmised.

"Single stab wound to the heart," Joe added. "Her blood all over Henry Allen."

"And despite all the evidence that Henry Allen is guilty," Wells said, "now you believe this man in yellow is responsible?"

"Last night I saw Barry rescue a young boy from being run over and it looked exactly like what Barry described had happened to him," Joe explained. "It got me thinking. What if somebody with Barry's abilities killed Nora?"

"There's just one flaw with your theory, detective," Wells said, waving his pen. "That is that all of this," he gestured to the screens that held information for the case, "happened fourteen years ago. Which is long before—"

"Your machine gave Barry his powers."

"An _accident_ gave Barry his powers," he dark-haired man disagreed, his eyes glinting like hard steel through his glasses.

"Do you think it is possible that someone with Barry's speed could have existed before the explosion?"

"Detective, I deal in probabilities as a scientist, and in this case it is highly unlikely."

…

"Found this in the yellow Humvee Tony stole," Barry informed them, waving a bag in the air before tossing it to Cisco.

"I'll take a look at it," the man with long hair replied, walking over to technology used for scanning objects such as this.

Harrison spun around in his chair, and hopped to his feet. He watched as Barry walked over to stand in front of Girder while Cisco and Caitlin scanned the gravel.

"Hey, man, where you going?" Cisco asked as he walked out of the room. "We could use your help, you know."

"You've got this," Harrison reasoned. "I've got something to look into."

And with that he walked out and into an adjacent room where there were bins of materials that Cisco played around with. Perhaps what he needed was in there. He dug around in all of the bins until he found what he was looking for and wandlessly magicked it to his room.

Then he sauntered back into the other room where Cisco was saying, "That gravel contained sixty percent hematite, consistent with Keystone Iron Works."

"Which closed down ten months ago," Barry said thoughtfully. "It's the perfect hideout."

"Barry," Caitlin interrupted, turning her iPad around for them to see. "Do you mind telling me about this? 'I have information on someone you are looking for. You know where to find me'? Now who could she be talking to?"

Barry opened and closed his mouth, unable to come up with what to say. What he finally came out with was a short, "I've gotta run," and then he was gone, and so was his suit.

The other three shook their heads at him and walked back over to the computers, chatting. They watched the little blip, which was a result of the tracker on Barry's suit, move rapidly to Jitter's and stay there. Cisco propped his feet up on the desk.

"I'm going to my room," Harrison muttered. "Call if you really need me."

But before he left he wordlessly cast a monitoring charm on the room. Once in his own room, he sat on the bed and listened to Caitlin and Cisco arguing about how many bugs Barry swallowed in a day. Waving a hand, one of the books floating into his lap and he skimmed it, listening to the conversation with half an ear until—

"Barry, talk to us. What are you doing?" Caitlin asked.

"Dude don't run angry," Cisco muttered. "We don't know how to defeat him yet."

But Barry sped on, a yellow crackling streak on the streets. He couldn't believe that Tony had found Iris and threatened her. It seemed his bullying days were far from over, even though he was a grown man.

The speedster skidded to a halt in the old abandoned ironworks in Keystone. He walked forward slowly to look at ripples of hardened iron. Pressed into the metal were footprints that looked like they were made while the metal was still hot. When the metal ended, the footprints continued in the mud for a few feet. Nearby on a dilapidated shelf sat bottles of beer. Seeing the beer, Barry put a hand up to his ear to activate his com-link and said, "This is definitely the place."

He paused and, hearing a noise to his right, jerked around. He caught a fist that was swung towards him and skidded to the side, ducking under the metal-man's arm as he said, "You're trespassing, freak." Tony grabbed Barry and flung him into the shelves. He hit them with a smack and fell onto the floor. Before he could recover, Woodward was standing at the end of the shelf, saying, "There's nowhere left to run," and he slammed the shelves down.

Barry cringed, preparing himself for impact, but it never came. Instead, there was a crack and a suffocating feeling until he found himself laying on the floor outside the building, groaning. Inside the building stood a man dressed in all black with a robe-like cape and a mask over his face and hair.

"And who are you, then?" Tony Woodward asked with a swagger and a cocky grin.

"I'm no one of anyone's concern," the concealed man replied, grinning. Then, his smile fell and his mouth tightened in concentration as he flung his hand out. Woodward flew backwards and the attempted to sit up. There was a crack, and the hooded figure was gone.

" _Barry_?" came Caitlin's voice over the com-system. " _Are you alright_?"

" _Yeah, what's going on, man_?" asked Cisco.

Barry had gotten to his feet by then and was trying to figure out what had happened. At first he had been disoriented from reappearing somewhere else, but it had slowly worn away until the others' voices interrupted his wonderings.

"I'm fine," he replied. "A little disoriented but fine. I'm on my way."

…

"I don't know what happened," Barry muttered, rubbing his hand down his face. "One minute I was on the ground and the shelf was coming towards me and then the next I was outside on the street. It was like—" He rubbed his hand down his face again. "It was like the night my mom died."

Joe put a hand up to his chin thoughtfully. Cisco and Kaitlin were the only other two in the room. Wells was still at home and Harrison had yet to be seen since Barry had gone to talk to Iris.

"Hey where's Harrison?" Barry asked at the thought of the man.

"He went to his room to catch up on sleep," Caitlin replied.

…

Harrison reappeared in his room with a crack and pulled off his mask. He quickly changed out of his black suit and cast a disillusionment charm on it before stowing it away in the set of drawers against the wall. It seemed he had found a way to relieve pent-up energy.

…

"Any material struck at a high enough velocity can be compromised," Dr. Wells was explaining to Barry. "Cisco."

"We ran an analysis on the footprint," Cisco informed them, walking over to the computer and pecking at the keyboard. "Based on its density and atomic structure, if you strike it at just the right angle at just the right speed, you can do some serious damage."

"How fast would I have to go?" Barry asked after a pause.

"Factoring in the metal's tensile strength, estimated dermal thickness, atmospheric pressure, air temp…you'd have to approach him at approximately…" he trailed off, hitting the keyboard with a few pecks before leaning forward. His mouth dropped open and he finished, "Mach 1.1."

"You want Barry to hit something at over eight hundred miles per hour?" Caitlin asked with incredulity.

"Eight hundred and thirty-seven, actually," Cisco corrected.

"That's faster than the speed of sound!"

"I know," Cisco gushed, raising a hand slowly as he continued. "He would create a sonic boom, which as I said before, would be—" he kissed his fingertips—"awesome!"

"I've never gone that fast," Barry muttered.

"Yet," Wells emphasized.

"I can't believe we're actually entertaining this idea!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"He'd need a straight shot from miles away!"

"5.3 miles...theoretically," their long haired friend added.

The brunette made a hand gesture as if to say, "What did I tell you?" Harrison, who had been quiet this whole time, lifted his head from where he was leaning it against the glass wall and looked at the speedster. "I think you can do it," he said.

"Do it right, you'll take him down," Wells said.

"Do it wrong," Caitlin told him, walking forward slightly, "and you'll break every bone in your body."

…

It had all happened so fast. Barry was still trying to wrap his head around it as he sped towards the elementary school he and Iris had attended growing up. One minute he was blowing off steam with Eddie, and then the next thing he knew, the entire station was rushing around trying to find out where Iris was after the detail that was assigned to her was attacked and she had disappeared. Just this once, Barry was glad that the kidnapper was someone he had grown up with. That way when they heard that the fire alarm at Carmichael Elementary had been activated, both he and Joe had known why.

"-I'm not going down without a fight," Tony was saying.

"Good!" Barry shouted from the end of the hallway, clad in his scarlet suit, "'cause you just found one!"

"You just won't stay dead!" Tony growled, walking forward and dragging Iris with him. "Come to save your little fan girl?"

"This is between us," Barry stated. "Let her go."

With one shove, Iris fell on her butt on the ground with a huff.

"Oh, I could," Tony jeered, swaggering forward, "but I'd rather make her watch as I break every bone in your body."

He turned to metal and swung his arm to strike a blow. Barry, moving so fast that everything felt like it was in slow motion, ran under Tony's arm and slid between his legs, grabbing Iris and setting her down against the lockers at the back of the hallway.

"Stay here," he commanded.

She breathed her response, looking dazed and Barry got to his feet, turning to face the bully. Tony started forward and Barry sped around to his other side where he kicked him in the shin.

"Too slow, Tin Man," he taunted.

Tony swung and missed, hitting the wall with a cry of anger.

"I've known guys like you. Peaked in high school, never got over it.. All these powers and look at you—bully then, bully now."

Barry sped over and grabbed the flagpole, swinging it at his opponent. The man in question turned to steel before it could pierce his flesh, and grabbed it in one hand. Using it as leverage, he slammed Barry against the lockers. Then he swung around and Barry was pressed against the opposite wall, and then the lockers again. With that, he fell to the ground. There was a shockwave, and then Tony was on the ground.

"Need some help?" said a man shrouded in black, offering a hand to Barry.

The metahuman muttered his thanks and accepted the hand, letting the stranger pull him to his feet. Tony slowly got to his feet as well, growling in annoyance and flexing his shoulders. The hooded figure shared a look with Barry before saying, "Run. I'll hold him off."

Barry disappeared and Tony laughed. "Some hero he is!"

"You'll be sorry you chose this group of people to mess with," the strange man said. "We know more about bullies than anyone else." He stepped to the side, and then said, "Your pride is your downfall."

Only seconds later, there was a yellow flash and a smack and Tony Woodward fell back to the ground. He attempted to get up again and the figure outstretched a hand, sending him reeling as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the floor one last time, stupefied.

…

"—the testimony shows that a metahuman may have been involved with the murder of Barry Allen's mother fourteen years ago. It seems to me that way back then, there must have been another particle accelerator."

"Another particle accelerator?" Dr. Wells asked, blinking at Joe. The man nodded, his hands clenching his coffee mug tightly. "I can assure you, detective, that is extremely unlikely, and if there were I don't recall any dark matter storms when I moved to town. Do you?"

"No I don't," Joe said, looking away as he thought. "When did you move to town, Dr. Wells?"

Wells scoffed into his own drink. Then, he looked up, his smile still in place, and sat back giving Joe a calculating look. "Something tells me you already know the answer to that question," he replied. "This whole 'help you solve the murder of Barry Allen's mother'—you were never looking for my help, were you?"

With a tilt of his head, Joe confirmed, "You opened your lab a month after Nora Allen's murder. You mind telling me what you were doing in Central City before that?"

Wells slapped the money for his drink on the table, saying, "I was starting over."

"Starting what over?" The cop questioned.

"And here I thought we were just two guys having a friendly drink," the dark haired man muttered, wheeling his chair around. He paused, and then turned back. "You want answers, detective? Tess Morgan. Look her up."

…

Harrison laid in his bed, twirling his pen in his hand. It seemed that his stay in this place continued to get longer and longer. And the longer he stayed there, the more confusing it got—and the more he missed home. There wasn't much there for him, but he still had his family, his lab, and Tess.

" _Well that is very, very sweet, but how about…" she held up the drawing again and continued, "Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories, or STAR Labs for short_."

If only he had listened to her when she had told him not to go near that thing. Perhaps then they would be building STAR Labs together—instead he was sitting in the very place he had yet to design where he had no idea what was going on…or where Tess was. Even if she was here, he wouldn't want to meet her, however. She would surely be married to his older self. She wouldn't be the same young Tess that Harrison loved.

He sighed and set the pen down. Perhaps he should actually do what he had been saying he was doing and catch up on some sleep. He magically turned out the lights, set his glasses on the side table, and rolled over, breathing deeply and falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

 **So Harrison is having flashbacks and comes up with a terrible idea. Also, I figured it was enough of a stretch, but not _too_ much of a stretch, to have an eleven-year-old boy know about polynomial functions and stuff like that. Something much more advanced would be a bit less believable. Tell me what you think! **

**~LittleMissMycroft**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Flash, nor do I own Harry Potter.**

 **I realize it's been a while since I've updated this story but, no, it's not abandoned. I've been really busy with school. :( Anyway, here's chapter six! Please enjoy and review!**

* * *

 **Chapter** **Six** :

"Good day, Doctor Wells."

"I sure hope so, Gideon," Wells replied, standing in the time vault, talking to the artificial intelligence named Gideon. "Bring up my logs. New Entry." The logs were pulled up and it began recording as he spoke. "It has been three hundred and eleven days since lightning struck. Subject has begun to use his powers in everyday life—to solve everyday problems. The only thing is that he tends to show off…He is so fixed on helping people that its distracting him from his true potential. But—good news—the future remains intact."

As he said this, the image of the news article that professed to the Flash's disappearance in crisis appeared. He lifted his eyes to the date—2024. The tall man ended the entry and reseated himself in his wheelchair. As he rolled towards the concealed entrance, his mind flitted to another topic—his doppelgänger.

The man was strange. He seemed so…young and innocent. On top of that, Wells had the feeling the younger version of himself was hiding something. Was he not actually from the past? Was he another imposter, here to ruin his plans? Nevertheless, there was something off about the man—and the experienced Doctor Wells was determined to figure him out.

…

Harrison Wells rolled out of his bed, standing on his long legs and putting his glasses on his face. It had been a few weeks since he had started his disguised excursions to help the Flash. It was now nearing mid-November. Ever since that first night he had begun to use his magic to help the Flash, people had begun to take notice of him.

Iris started putting sightings of the Flash, the Burning Man, and himself on her blog—nicknaming him the Midnight Phantom. Harrison, of course would be lying if he said he disliked his nickname. In fact, he loved it. He loved using magic to help people. Before, if he had used magic in public he would have been apprehended. However, now it seemed there was no government to apprehend him. It seemed like now he was filling a void he hadn't even known existed by saving people—like it was what he was meant to do.

But also the team had taken notice of the "Midnight Phantom". They had assessed that he was a metahuman with telekinesis, something that amused Harrison greatly. Nevertheless, he kept to himself about it in order to keep his powers a secret.

Fully dressed and ready to go, the young man took the elevator up to the main level where he found Caitlin and Cisco. Not long after, his doppelgänger emerged in his wheelchair. They stood around and talked for a minute. Then, Wells muttered, "He's late."

"Late is kind of Barry's signature move," Caitlin muttered with a smile.

Suddenly there was a flash and Barry was standing next Harrison, sipping from a steaming cup. Caitlin jumped at his sudden appearance but Harrison remained unaffected. Wells looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"I got a little held up," Barry said, oblivious to the dynamic undertones in the room. "You would have had to have been there."

"Can I have a word with Barry?" Wells asked with a tight lip.

The other three shared bemused looks and Cisco said, "Ooh you're in trouble!"

While Wells was more than likely getting on to Barry for his tardiness and laid back attitude concerning his speed, the others went and convened around the computers, chatting amiably.

…

Mary Wallis enjoyed researching. She loved investigating the unknown—it felt like every day she solved a new important mystery. The woman was the one that had detected signs of life in the Death Room, tracked down the man that had come through the veil, and hauled him in for investigation. Perhaps Mary was a bit overzealous, but curiosity had always been one of her strong suits—curiosity that was peaked even more when the man they captured awoke and sported flashing, red eyes.

She walked in the room where the Ministry stored their latest mystery, stepping into the circle of light where the man's chair was located. The man in question, Transmutation, was sitting with his head slumped in the chair—it looked as if he was asleep.

"Transmutation?" she asked, attempting to wake him up in order to question him again—so far they had had no progress.

The man's head snapped up and his eyes were glowing red once more. Before she could open her mouth, he began struggling against his bonds.

"You can't keep me here!" he growled. "I…am…Transmutation…I'll—" he flexed his hands and then clenched them into fists. Suddenly, the shackles that bound his wrists melted away. The woman stepped back, looking shocked. Transmutation stood slowly, looking down at his hands. Then, he thrust them forward, slamming them onto the ground.

The ground underneath Mary Wallis buckled and warped, and then changed into the same consistency as quicksand. As she began to sink, the woman let out a cry. "Help me!" she exclaimed.

"Why should I?" Transmutation growled, his glowing eyes piercing in the darkness. He stepped forward and placed his hand on the door, which blew away like dust in the wind. Another second, and he was gone—disappeared through the doorway.

…

"Facial recognition software," Cisco said, "was designed for archeologists, and it should help us ID our crispy corpse."

He pecked on the keyboard, pulling up the picture of the charred remains of a man. He hit a few buttons; and the facial recognition software began running, scanning the face and going through potential people that belonged to it.

"The question is, how did he get fried in the first place?" Barry asked. "Is there a metahuman out there that can control electricity?"

"It'd take a serious electrostatic discharge to cause that tissue damage," Wells told them.

"Guys, according to the software there's an eighty-two percent chance that your guy looked like this," Cisco said and a picture popped up on the screen.

"Eighty-two?" Barry asked skeptically.

"Hey, it was zero when you walked in here, pal."

"Can you cross-reference that with the DMV database?" Barry asked. "Maybe get a name?"

"Absolutely," Cisco replied, sitting up and grinning. "This software can do just about anything—now that Felicity reprogrammed it." A driver's license popped up that belonged to a man with similar features. "Casey Donoghue. No wife, no kids. Used to work at the Petersburg electrical substation."

"That can't be a coincidence," Caitlin murmured.

"That's weird," Cisco muttered, looking at the screen. "Someone just used his ID to enter the substation."

The other computer started bleeping frantically. Caitlin checked on it and said, "The Petersburg substation is experiencing a massive power drain right now."

"Barry, be—" Dr. Wells started, but was interrupted when Barry sped away. Caitlin, Cisco, and Harrison turned to look at the space where he had been standing as a few papers floated to the ground. "Careful."

"Well," Harrison muttered after a minute. "I think you guys have it handled up here. I'm going to go work on my time equations."

Doctor Wells watched with narrowed eyes, tapping a finger on his lips as his younger doppelganger turned and left the room. As soon as he got out of earshot, he turned on his heel and apparated on the spot, reappearing in a dark power-station. He waved his wand and his clothes changed into a black super-suit with a hood over his face. Before him was a man with blue electricity flowing into his hands. Seconds later, the Flash skidded to a halt across from him on the other side of the man.

"You're already here!" Barry exclaimed, phrasing it as a question.

"I saw that this area was experiencing a power drain!" Harrison shouted, his voice masked with his magic.

"Hey, you!" Barry called, pointing to the man in between them. "I'm pretty sure this is a restricted area!"

The man lowered his hands with a snap and the electricity faded into his skin with an orange glow. Baring his teeth, he turned to look at Barry. Then, he thrust out his hands in either direction, aimed at the two men on either side of him. Barry sped away from the blast, and Harrison apparated right next to the scarlet speedster.

"Easy there, Zappy!" Barry shouted.

"Don't antagonize him!" Harrison shouted angrily.

"I…" the man mumbled in a low voice, stumbling forward, "have to feed."

Barry and Harrison blinked at him, and then each other. The man thrust out his arm and, anticipating the lightning, Harrison disapparated with a hand on Barry's arm. The two of them reappeared at the top of a tower. The man searched around for them and when he spotted them, Harrison brought them down to the ground behind him before the lightning could reach them again. Then, Harrison motioned to Barry for them to split up—perhaps then the man's attention would be diverted long enough for him to catch him. The Flash nodded and sped in one direction while the Midnight Phantom disappeared, reappearing in the opposite direction. Not phased, the man shot electricity at both of them. Harrison, already beginning to feel exhausted, did not have enough time to apparate out of the way. Instead, he narrowly dodged the blast and hit his head on a metal pole.

Meanwhile, the creepy zombie man had managed to catch Barry. Instead of shocking him with lightning however, he bound him with some odd energy. Barry cried out, trying to break free but it was impossible. The longer he stood there, the more drained and exhausted he began to feel. Finally, the man broke off the connection and stumped off muttering, "Too much."

Barry fell to the ground, his limbs feeling like jelly. He coughed and stood, swaying a little. He could see the Midnight Phantom laying on the ground, unconscious. He tried to run over to the man but only managed to make it a few steps before his powers cracked and he fell forward.

" _Barry, you need to get out of there_!" Doctor Wells exclaimed over his com-link. Barry attempted to run again but found that once again he could not. " _Run, Barry!_ "

"I can't!" Barry exclaimed.

…

After he left that God-forsaken hole in the ground, Transmutation wandered for a while. He had no idea how long he had been locked up, but the sudden arrival into sunlight was almost painful to him. He hugged the edges of the alley he came out in, walking along the shadows. And it was indeed a strange alleyway he found himself in. There were odd shops all over full of frog eyes, antique-looking quills, and sticks of wood called wands.

He had no idea what was going on and it scared him. Transmutation still had a hold of him—his eyes were still glowing red. The man stumbled into a child, who promptly ran away crying and screaming for his mother.

He had to get out of here.

Transmutation found an alcove behind the ice-cream parlor and stumbled into the shadows. He sat down, leaning against the trash bins and fell into a deep and needed sleep. There he stayed away from prying eyes for the rest of the day until he was awoken as a worker came to throw away the trash for the day.

…

It wasn't long before Harrison woke once more. Hurriedly, he apparated back to his room and charmed his clothes back to normal. Then, the man summoned an ice pack and held it up to his quite sore temple. Harrison groaned. He had never healed himself before, but he figured the others would be suspicious if they noticed a sizeable lump on his forehead. The wizard held up a hand to his head and it glowed purple for a second. It felt as though there was ice cold gel coating the entire wound. It went numb, and then the pain was gone.

Exhausted, he fell onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

…

Albert Mutare awoke in a dimly lit alleyway, laying in a pile of trash. He had no idea where he was or how he got there. He groaned and sat up, raising a hand to his head, which hurt as though he had a mild hangover. The door beside him, from which sounds had been emitting, opened and a man came out, carrying a trash can. The man lifted the can, prepared to dump its contents in the bin behind Mutare, but stopped at the sight of the man.

"Are you all right?" The strange man asked, setting down his trash can and bending over to look at Albert.

"Where am I?" Mutare asked, taking the hand the man offered and getting pulled to his feet. "Oh, my head hurts."

"Had one too many drinks, there?" the strange man asked.

"No," Mutare replied. "At least, I don't think so. The last thing I remember is—"

When he broke off suddenly, the man leaned forward eagerly, brimming with curiosity.

"Yes?" he asked.

Mutare looked at the man and replied, "I was locked in some dark dungeon."

…

It seemed he had been knocked out from that fight almost an entire day. The sun was setting over Central City. Dr. Wells was off somewhere and Harrison found the others in the main lab. Barry was standing, looking at his suit.

Apparently he had lost his powers.

"How could he had lost his powers?"

"That metahuman I went after—" Barry sighed, "he doesn't just have the ability to control lightning. He can also siphon electricity off of people."

"Oh," Harrison muttered.

Silence fell over the room. It was a thick, heavy silence—the sort that rung in everyone's ears. Barry stepped forward, looking at his suit once more. "Do you think I'll ever wear that suit again?" he asked.

"I hope so," Caitlin replied.

"I didn't have my speed for very long," Barry muttered, "but now that it's gone, it feels like a part of me is gone too."

"With or without your speed, you're still you, Barry," Caitlin told him.

"But I'm not," he retorted. "I'm not the best version of me. I love being the Flash. I love everything about it. The feeling of running hundreds of miles per hour—wind and power just rushing past my face…being able to help people."

Harrison, who was leaning against the doorway, chuckled slightly. That was exactly how he felt about his newfound powers. It seemed he and Barry were kindred spirits in that regard. It made Harrison realize just how precious his magic was. What if it was possible to remove his magic? What would he do without it? How would he cope with not being able to help people—with being powerless?

"Farooq Gibran," Cisco said, entering the room.

"Who?" Barry asked.

"The power vampire who jacked your speed," the long haired young man replied. "I hacked into surveillance from the substation. It was easy to find a match."

"He climbed into an electrical tower the night of the explosion," Barry read aloud.

"No surprise where his powers came from," Caitlin remarked.

The computer beeped and both Cisco and Harrison ran over to check on it.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Cisco nearly wailed. "This is not happening!"

On the screen was surveillance footage of Gibran—who was apparently standing outside STAR Labs as they spoke. The other two walked around to look at what Cisco was complaining about. The deranged man was shouting something at the footage camera. Harrison pointed out his moving mouth and, with a few clicks, Cisco turned on the sound.

" _Dr. Harrison Wells, I need to see you_!" he called, holding his hands out from his body ready to fire. _"Come on. I know you're inside. Open the door. I just wanna talk, Dr. Wells. Wells! Let me in!_ "

The four of them looked at each other with trepidation.

"What should we do?" Harrison asked the others.

"We're all powerless," Caitlin muttered. "There's not much we _can_ do."

They watched with horror as the man outside their walls tore open the electrical server, pulling a cord out of it, and ripping it in half. Lightning crackled out of the cable and into his hands, streaming up his arms and into his body. As it did so, the lights around them began flickering. The computer screens all went blank and the air conditioning was making a clicking sound as it attempting to run, but was being denied power.

Then, the flickering stopped and the lights went out entirely. In the dark, they all froze—unable to see each other and unsure of what to do. At the sound of a loud bang, they all flinched and turned towards the source. It was coming from the front of the building.

"He's inside," Barry said.

…

"Here we are," the man said, opening the door to his flat in the Leaky Cauldron. "It's not much, but it's close by to work." Mutare nodded and looked around. The place was neat, if small. "You know, I never caught your name."

"Albert," the man offered, "Albert Mutare. You?"

The man grinned a goofy-looking, toothy grin and said, "Colin Creevey."

…

Wells showed up not long after the blackout started. Instantly, he was asking questions. While they were scrambling to answer them, Barry paced back and forth, holding his phone up to his ear. None of his calls were being picked up. Finally, he got a response from someone.

"Captain," he said as Singh picked up his phone. "I can't get ahold of anyone in the precinct—"

"The good thing is," Wells mused. "If we know where his powers came from—perhaps we can know how to combat them."

Barry hung up his phone and turned to them.

"Joe and Iris are in trouble," he informed them. "I need my powers back now."

"I have a theory," Wells said. "It's untested."

"I'm willing to roll the dice," Barry replied.

"Okay, you've lost your speed," Wells said. "Yes, but nothing had changed inside you at the subatomic level. Your cells are still primed—"

"They just need a jump start," Cisco breathed.

"Okay, how do we jumpstart them?" the speedster asked.

"We would need to replicate the initial jolt to your system," Harrison mused aloud.

"But that would mean a peak current of at least 20,000 kilo-amps," Cisco countered.

"That's more electricity than they give to people in the electric chair," Caitlin muttered, obviously not a fan of their plan.

"Caitlin," Wells tried to reason, "with Farooq in the building, we're all looking at a death sentence."

"The spare generator's offline," Cisco informed them. "If we reboot it, we could get a charge that big.

"We need something that can transmit the load from the generator to Barry without shorting out," Harrison added.

"The treadmill," Cisco replied. "My baby can take the charge."

Caitlin, leaning on the desk, looked between Harrison, Wells, and Cisco and asked, "What if _Barry_ can't take the charge?"

"That's up to Mr. Allen," Wells stated.

Barry, who had been running his hands through his hair worriedly while they argued, made for the doorway. As he was about to leave, Caitlin's voice halted him.

"Where are you going?"

He turned and paused in the doorway.

"I'm going to talk to him," he replied.

"Nope, nope," Wells tried.

"You didn't see him at the substation. He needed to feed. I got superspeed out of the particle accelerator blast, but his friends died. He woke up with a disease."

"Earlier today you worked a crime scene where this metahuman electrocuted an innocent man," Dr. Wells attempted to reason. "He's a murderer! And you are powerless to defend yourself against him."

"He may just need help like I did. I don't need powers to give him that. I have to try."

And with that he walked out of the room. Harrison shook his head. He didn't understand why the others tried to reason with Barry—when he had his heart set on saving people, nothing could possibly deter him from achieving his goal.

"I'm gonna go work on getting the back-up generator online," Cisco muttered.

"I'll come with you," Harrison offered.

He followed the long haired young man out of the room and into the lower levels of STAR Labs. They opened up the power box and Cisco pulled out a flashlight to help see what they were doing.

Meanwhile, Barry was failing at having a successful talk with the crazy man. He tried reasoning with the man, but he was just too far gone. The end result was Barry getting thrown back through the doorway into the main room with a jolt of lightning. Quickly, Caitlin shut the emergency steel door and helped Barry to his feet.

"Caitlin," Well ordered, "get Barry to the treadmill."

Without a second thought, Caitlin nodded and helped Barry to the adjacent room while Dr. Wells disappeared down a hallway in the opposite direction.

…

Harrison and Cisco stuck their head out of the doorway they were in to check if the coast was clear—it seemed Gibran had blasted a hole through the emergency door. Hopefully with the power back online it would have thrown the man off from his hunt.

"Come on," Cisco muttered.

He led Harrison back into the dark room with the generators. The two of them checked all of the power boxes and pushed a few buttons to make sure everything was running smoothly. Not long after, Caitlin appeared, supporting Barry. The two of them entered the room and Barry sat down.

"Did you do it?" Harrison asked.

Panting, Barry nodded.

"You're winded," Cisco commented. "That's not good."

"I need to take your blood," Caitlin murmured. "See what happened.

"I can't believe he's dead," Barry breathed.

Cisco's face went slack and he and Harrison shared a worried look. Hurrying forward, Cisco asked, "Dr. Wells?"

"No," Barry muttered. "No, Tony Woodward."

"He escaped the Pipeline," Caitlin muttered as she worked.

"He must have escaped when the power went out," Barry theorized.

"That's not possible," Cisco said. "The Pipeline was designed to withstand a power outage. Someone had to have let him go."

"I did," said a voice from the doorway. They turned to see the older Dr. Wells sitting in his wheelchair in the doorway. "I released him."

"Why?" Barry asked.

"To use him to divert Gibran's attention while we worked to restore your speed."

"You used him as a distraction?" Barry asked with incredulity.

"An unnecessary one as it turned out, it seems the plan has failed."

It was such a simple remark, made so callously that it was unbelievable. In that moment, Dr. Wells seemed like an entirely different person. Gone was the caring man that worked to save people, replaced by one who was emotionally cut off from the reality of using someone and causing their death. The other four looked at each other in shock, not believing what they were hearing. Wells entered the room, coming to a halt in front of the Flash.

"I have his blood on me," Barry gasped, looking down at his shirt. "How could you do that?"

"You're showing sentiment for the man who tortured you as a child," although it was phrased as a statement, it was almost a question. The man had a curious, calculating look in his eyes.

"Tony might've been a bully then and now, but he didn't deserve to die!"

"Does my doppelgänger, Caitlin, or Cisco, or me, or you?" Wells asked. "I had a choice to make—him or us. I chose us without a second thought."

"Well, you talk about miracle cures and scientific breakthroughs, but you don't care about people at all!"

"Maybe you care too much," Wells retorted. "Being a hero is important to you. I respect your ideals. I just don't have the luxury of sharing them!"

"I forgot," Barry remarked coldly. "Your game is chess. We're all just pawns to you, right? So what's your move, doctor? Which one of us gets sacrificed next?"

…

Creevey was off in his bedroom asleep. Albert had claimed the couch to crash on. It was not too uncomfortable, luckily. The cushions were squishy and it was plenty long enough to stretch out on. However, something about being unconscious the entire day before had made it next to impossible to sleep that night. After a few hours, he gave up on sleeping and found a stash of moving pictures and newspapers in a briefcase in the corner.

Full of curiosity, Mutare opened the briefcase and flicked through the photos. There was a castle, an odd looking stadium, and lots and lots of pictures of a cozy room with a fireplace and squishy red chairs. One person showed up the most in the pictures—a boy with messy dark hair and round glasses. The boy looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on who the face belonged to.

After musing on this for a few seconds, the man replaced the photos in the briefcase and pulled out newspaper after newspaper Almost all of them were about a boy named Harry Potter. Some were about some "Dark Lord". There were papers from his return and papers going into what towns he attacked and whatnot—it seemed that he was some sort of terrorist. Confused about some of the terms, Albert went and found a book about "The Wizarding World", something Creevey had mentioned earlier. When he was done, he picked up the last newspaper.

" _ **THE DARK LORD DEFEATED"**_ it read.

And on the cover was a moving picture of this "Harry Potter". At seeing the face, Albert did a double take. The man looked almost exactly like someone he had known before he had been shunted through a portal in his prison cell. His eyes began to glow red and he pointed a shaky finger at the photo.

" _Him_ ," he panted. "He did this to me."

...

After assessing their escape routes, they decided to get out through the garage where the vans were stored. They all argued for a while and discussed Barry's mental block on his speed before hearing Gibran above them and deciding to head out.

All the while, Harrison was dealing with an inner struggle on whether he should reveal his powers and use them to save this situation. On the one hand, he trusted them all enough to tell them, but on the other he still felt duty-bound by the Statute of Secrecy. Even though the Wizarding Government did not exist, he still felt as though he should attempt to keep his powers secret. On top of that, he didn't exactly trust Doctor Wells.

Luckily, the situation was not yet dire enough to need him desperately. The others were spending enough time arguing and running away that he wouldn't have much time for anything anyhow. Either way, Harrison never came around to revealing his powers—or using them to help save the day. They got off the elevator and ran straight into the garage, weaving in and out of vans. Barry was at the front of the group and Wells, bound by his chair, was at the back.

"Second van!" Cisco called to Barry. "The keys are inside!"

Barry ran around to the driver's side of the van, opening the door and calling out, "Come on!" as he climbed inside. Harrison wasn't far behind him, skidding to a halt on the passenger's side and wrenching the door open. Before he climbed in, however, he spared a glance behind him at Cisco and Caitlin, who were running just behind him, and his doppelganger who still lagged far behind.

As the garage door began opening, Barry started the van—or attempted to. It revved on and off, its lights blinking.

"Get in," Cisco shouted. "Come on!"

Harrison slid into the passenger seat and watched the others. Cisco flung open the back of the truck. The garage door halted halfway open and the engine sputtered. At the same time, Caitlin came to a halt beside Dr. Wells as his chair stopped moving. Trying to get moving again, Wells beat on the controls. The lights behind them flickered. Harrison slid out of his seat and looked up to see Gibran standing at the opposite end of the room.

The man in question threw a bolt of lightning at Barry, who opened his door and fell onto the ground with a thud. Worried about Barry, Caitlin and Cisco ran over to help him up, asking if he was all right. Harrison shoved the three of them behind him, standing in front of them in a protective manner. Before them, all by himself and unprotected, was Dr. Wells, sitting in the chair that could not move.

"I've been looking for you," Wacko breathed, fixated on Harrison. Harrison's hand twitched.

"Hey!" Dr. Wells called as Gibran continued to advance on them. The man turned to the scientist. "You're looking for me."

"Finally, you show your face," he breathed.

"Well, I wasn't exactly eager to be killed."

"Neither were my friends," the man retorted.

"I know," Wells said. "I hurt a lot of people that night."

"People?" Gibran asked. "You don't even know their names."

"Jake Davenport," Wells replied. "Darya Kim. Ralph Dibney. Al Rothstein. Grant Emerson. Will Everett. Bea De Costa." He looked at Caitlin. "Ronnie Raymond. I know the names of every person that died that night. They mattered. And the fact that the world is now deprived of their potential is something I have to live with every day. But these people—these people have done nothing wrong. You want to punish me? Fine. Let's do _that_. But let these people live."

The man paused, hesitating for a second. Then, he said, "You died that night too."

And he thrust out his hands, shooting electricity at the man sitting before him. Wells was blasted out of his wheelchair and rolled for a few feet.

" _No_!" Barry screamed.

"You just didn't know it until today," Gibran continued. Then, as he struck again, Barry's eyes sparked red. There was a flash and Harrison fell to the side as Barry sped past him, grabbing the elder Wells and moving him out of the line of fire. Barry set Wells down in between Cisco and Caitlin, who supported him.

Then, the Flash sped back wearing his scarlet suit. The four watched as Barry sped out of the way of a few blasts, and then got caught in a stream of energy again. He and Farooq Gibran stood grunting and yelling as the energy connected them. When it was released, Barry fell to his knees, panting, and Gibran fell onto his back—staring with wide, unseeing eyes. He was dead—overloaded from too much power.

…

"Good day, Doctor Wells."

"Indeed it is, Gideon," Wells replied. "Bring up my log please. New entry. It has now been three hundred and twelve days since lightning struck. In the past twenty-four hours, the subject has taken a great leap forward, causing me to revise my initial thesis. I thought—Well, I thought that his attachment to people was a distraction, slowing down his progress. Now I realize the opposite is true. Barry's attachment to people…the people he cares about…is the key to getting him up to speed. In the meantime, good news." He pulled up the newspaper from the future. Only a few hours previous, it had been showing him some garbage about solar flares and oil spills. Now it had returned to showing The Flash. "The future remains intact."

* * *

 **So, hope you enjoyed!**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own the Flash**

 **Also, if you ever see a little * it means that an object in my author's note pertains directly to a specific part of the chapter. Now, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter Seven:**

November passed and Harrison began to miss his home even more than he had before. With all of the metahumans distracting them, they hadn't really been working on the machine much to get him back to his own time. He missed his parents and Tess so much it ached. On top of that, life at STAR Labs was so confusing—living with the future version of himself and seeing all the things he did. Thanksgiving was drawing nearer and Harrison didn't know if there was anything he was thankful for. Not any more, at least, other than perhaps the daily distractions he received.

"Whoa, that's weird," Cisco muttered, looking at the computer screen.

"What?" Harrison asked as he, Caitlin, and Barry gathered around their friend.

"There are reports of unusual seismic activity near the north bridge," Cisco read, looking at a blinking red light on the map.

"I'm on it," Barry said shortly, and then disappeared in a Flash.

Quickly, Caitlin took a seat in the chair beside Cisco's and pulled up a program that monitored Barry's vitals via his suit. Harrison stood by and watched as they talked Barry through what he should do to take out the "mysterious figure" on the other side of the bridge who was causing the seismic activity. Finally, Barry captured the man and brought him in.

They threw him in a containment unit in the pipeline and when he awoke, decided to talk to him.

"You can't keep me locked in here!" the man cried, pounding on the door with his fists.

"Actually, the cell has been fitted with a dampener that should prevent you from using your powers," Cisco replied with a smirk.

"You mentioned that you were destroying that bridge for a reason," Barry said, stepping forward. "What was it?"

"Promised to," the man said with a sick grin, letting his hands fall to his sides.

"Promised who?" the Flash continued to probe.

"A man," the metahuman replied. "A man in all black with red glowing eyes. He wanted STAR lab's attention."

"Why?" Barry muttered. "What does he want with the Flash?"

"No," the man grinned. "Not the Flash. A man called Harrison."

Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco turned to look at Dr. Wells, who shared a glance with his doppelganger. While Wells was holding a hand up to his chin thoughtfully, Harrison ran his hands through his dark, messy hair. Who was this strange man, and why was he set on Harrison Wells?

…

"Hey."

Harrison looked up from where he sat on a ledge in front the pipeline, against the round door—the one place he had found that he could be alone to think. It was Barry, walking towards him. Harrison turned back away and looked down at the floor.

"I guess you're pretty worried about the new bad guy, huh?" Barry asked, sitting down next to the man.

"Just feeling pretty cooped up," Harrison replied, and it was true. He had no idea why, but he had been feeling on edge when he was around Dr. Wells ever since the previous month, and had all but stopped his excursions as the Midnight Phantom.

"Well I have some good news, then," Barry smiled. "Usually Joe, Iris, and I have a Thanksgiving meal with just the three of us—a nice family dinner—but with all that's been going on, Iris wants to invite the people at STAR Labs. We were wondering if you would like to join us."

"I don't know if you would like me over," Harrison muttered, looking down. "Your family knows about there being two of me?"

"Well—no one but Joe, but we figured we could make up some excuse or disguise you and Dr. Wells has already turned us down…" Harrison shook his head. "Just let me know if you change your mind."

The messy-haired young man watched as Barry stood and walked away, looking slightly disappointed. Harrison sat there for another few minutes, wishing he could go back out into the open, but slightly afraid to do so. This new fear was driving him crazy, and he wished he understood it.

Suddenly, there was a bang and sounds of scuffling beyond the door behind him. Harrison jumped to his feet and turned to the panel that controlled the door. He put his hand on it and twisted. The door began to slide open and he ducked under it, running towards the source of the sound. What he found was the containment unit that held the earthquake metahuman sitting at the end of the walkway. It was empty and there were cracks in the glass door, which was hanging open. The walkway to the containment unit was twisted and warped, and there was no sign of life nearby other than the other prisoners in the pipeline.

Harrison turned to see Barry flashing in, followed closely by a jogging Cisco. Dr. Wells showed up in his chair moments later. Cisco held his forgotten drink in one hand and gaped.

"What happened?" he asked.

"It seems that our prisoner has broken out," Dr. Wells replied.

"Did you see what happened?" Barry asked.

"No," Harrison muttered, running a hand down his face and looking around. "I heard a sound and came as fast as I could, but I was too late. Whatever happened—it happened fast."

"Earth Shaker must have busted himself out," Barry muttered.

"First off," Cisco retorted, sticking out his free hand towards Barry, "leave the nicknaming to me, please. Second off, that's impossible. He couldn't use his powers in this cell. And I would have gotten an alert if the dampener fell."

"What if someone else did this?" Harrison asked, indicating to the warped walkway. "The trajectory of these warp patterns indicate they originated from here—" he pointed to the center of the walkway where there was a round dent. Spreading out from the dent towards the cell were ripples and tears. "They traveled this way," he traced the path with his hand, "and tore the door off. Whoever did this was on the outside."

The other three scientists looked at the patterns he spoke of.

"But who could have done it?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I mean, are there _two_ metahumans with the same ability?" Cisco asked.

Harrison shrugged and muttered, "I'm sure it's not impossible."

"Is there a way we can track our guy down again?" Barry asked Cisco.

"I guess I can set up a sensor that reads seismic activity," the gadget-guy pondered.

Dr. Wells wheeled around and followed Cisco out of the pipeline. Before following, Barry glanced back and gave Harrison a worried look. The man in question grit his teeth, knowing that cabin fever was not the only thing on his mind—he wanted to know who the man in black was, and he wanted to find out desperately. Now alone, Harrison stood and looked at the mangled cell. His eyebrows furrowed and he narrowed his eyes. With purpose filling every cell in his body, the young man turned and exited the pipeline.

…

Harrison lay on his bed twirling a pen above his hand once more with his magic. He was monitoring spells on the cortex, as he did on most days, and was only listening to Cisco's conversation about some movie with half an ear. Then, he sat bolt upright as Cisco's voice said, _"Barry! I've got seismic activity in an old abandoned barn off of Nixon Street_ _!_

The pen clattered to the floor. Harrison waved a hand over himself and his clothes merged into his black suit. Then, he turned on the spot. Harrison had had enough of sitting around while the Flash did all of the work. It was time he did something about this red-eyed character.

When he reappeared, he was in a dimly-lit barn with all sorts of objects lying around. There were bales of rotting hay by an empty trough, saws and hammers laying on a table, and pitchforks stuck into the loft. The ground beneath his feet was shaking and there was the figure of a man standing beneath the ladder that led up to the loft.

Another second later, there was a flash and Barry stood beside him. Spotting the man before them as he glanced about them, Barry called out, "So you've gotten our attention. What do you want?"

The man turned to face them. Within the hollow of his face, two pinpricks were shining amidst the gloom. They were glowing red. In a deep, unfamiliar voice, the man in black rasped, "Midnight Phantom. Long time, no see. Done hiding?"

"Do I know you?" Harrison asked, stepping forward.

"No," the man replied. "But I know you. As well as your friend—Harrison Wells. He's wandered quite far from home, hasn't he? But, no…he isn't lost."

Harrison narrowed his eyes and tilted his head a little, squinting in the darkness. The man still had not moved. It seemed almost a though he knew who the Midnight Phantom was.

"We don't have to fight," Barry called out. "Leave in peace and we won't hurt you."

There was a dark, raspy chuckle. "No, we don't have to fight, Flash. This fight isn't yours."

And with that, he struck the ground, clenching it in his fist and pulling it up. The ground distorted into spikes, that flung towards Harrison. Harrison rolled to the side, falling hard on the table full of building tools. The tools flew into the air. Stretching out with his magic, Harrison thrust out his hand and flung the tools at his adversary. Running forward, the figure grabbed a saw in his hand. At his touch, the metal melted and twisted, slipping through his fingers harmlessly. Then, he splayed out his fingers and a layer of earth turned to dust, whipping around the two men, separating them from a specific scarlet speedster.

Harrison prepared himself for defense, but the ground was swiped out from underneath him. The figure pounced on him in an instant, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and lifting him up. In a tone that only Harrison could hear, the man whispered, "You've strayed too far from home."

There was a flash, and the man was thrown to the side—Barry had joined the fray. While he was zipping around, laying punch after punch on the man, Harrison shouted, "Move out of the way!"

Barry did so eventually and Harrison threw the man back with a blast of raw magic. The man, seeming to be unfazed, hopped back up to his feet and threw a horseshoe at Harrison, which quickly mutated into a thick shard of pointy metal. Harrison ducked behind the table for cover.

Meanwhile, Barry had also been knocked off his feet from the blast. He stood up with a groan, taking a deep breath. He ran forward, but before he got far, the ground beneath his feet transformed into quick sand. He quickly stopped, knowing the more he moved, the more he would sink. He watched helplessly as Harrison ducked behind the table and the dark figure advanced once more.

The dark figure thrust out his hand and clenched it. The air before him began pulsing and rippling. At the same time, Harrison popped up to his feet and threw out his own hands, his intent on throwing his opponent back. Instead, it hit the rippling air, which flashed a blinding white-blue and exploded, throwing the both of them back.

Harrison was thrown back, landed on the trough, and knocked unconscious. The other man was thrown into a bale of hay in the opposite direction. The ground around Barry's legs re-solidified. He vibrated his legs, breaking the earth away from them. With a grunt, he pulled himself out of the ground and stood, looking between the bad guy and the mysterious man that had helped him several times now. Deciding that the Midnight Phantom needed his help, the Flash ran forward and checked on the man.

He had a dent in his head where he hit the table earlier and he was still unconscious. Quickly, Barry scooped up the Phantom and ran back to STAR Labs.

…

As Barry ran up like a gust of wind, the others immediately stopped what they were doing. In the scarlet speedster's arms was a man dressed in all black.

"I don't know how bad he's hurt, but he got knocked out," Barry informed them, setting the Midnight Phantom on the hospital bed.

Caitlin took note of the blood on the stranger's face as she stepped forward, ready to help this man out. She pulled back the hood so that she could make sure he didn't have any dents anywhere else, and all of them gasped. Laying on that bed, unconscious, was Harrison. Quickly composing herself, Caitlin checked Harrison's airways, making sure he was still breathing properly. She then lifted up his eyelids and shone a light in his eyes.

When she was done with that, she poked around, feeling for broken bones or sprained muscles. It was not until she was fully done checking him over that he awoke. He sat upright, gasping, swaying, and blinking at his surroundings.

"What were you _thinking_?" Caitlin asked in a quietly sinister voice.

Harrison blinked at her.

"Something along the lines of, 'Maybe if I surprise him I'll be able to knock him out,'" Harrison gasped, speaking of what he was thinking just before he got flung into the horse trough. His back hurt and he was finding it harder than normal to breathe.

"This isn't funny," Caitlin muttered. "When were you planning on telling us you were secretly the Midnight Phantom? What if you had gotten hurt even worse than this, and didn't have Barry here to help you? You're lucky you got away with a mild concussion."

"I wanted to tell you," Harrison muttered. "All of you. I just—couldn't find a way to explain it."

"What about all those times that STAR Labs was in trouble?" Barry asked. "How could you sit by and do nothing?"

"Well I didn't do _nothing_ ," he replied.

"I still can't believe _he's_ the Midnight Phantom," Cisco grinned. "How awesome is that?" Dr. Wells, Barry, and Caitlin all turned and fixed him with disapproving stares. "And awful. He totally should have told us."

Harrison laughed weakly, wheezing slightly. Then, he grew serious once more. "As much as I love this chat, we do have the problem of Dark and Mysterious to solve. Have we found him again?"

"Yeah, about that," Cisco replied.

"What?" Harrison asked, looking up.

"We kind of lost him," the other continued. "And with no way to track him—"

"We can't find him again," Barry surmised.

"Yeah," Cisco nodded.

"What about our other guy?" Harrison asked.

"I ran our security footage of him through the data-base and got a match," the long haired young man replied. He wandered over to the computer in the adjacent room, pulling up an ID of the man. "James Ayres," he called. "He worked at a building company here in town. The site they were working on was experiencing some structural challenges and a sink hole appeared when the particle accelerator blew. Apparently everyone at the site was knocked unconscious and when they woke, Ayres was gone—he's been missing for several months now. They presumed that he had fallen into the sinkhole and died."

"Where's the site at?" Barry asked.

"Not far from—"

"The barn our new assailant was found," Wells told them, reading over Cisco's shoulder.

"I'm on it," Barry replied, speeding out of the building, taking his suit with him.

"I'll follow," Harrison said, making his way to get to his feet.

"No." A hand stopped him. Caitlin all but pushed him back onto the bed, saying, " _You_ are going to rest. I don't know if you've forgotten, but you're still hurt—and you don't exactly have super healing like Barry does."

Harrison sighed and crossed his arms, laying his head back on the pillow.

…

"I can't believe you caught him without me," Harrison muttered with his arms folded across his chest. He was standing in the pipeline where they had Ayres locked up along with Barry, Cisco, and Wells.

"Well it wasn't that hard," the scarlet speedster replied. "Sometimes I feel like the more strength-based their powers are, the easier it is to distract them."

Harrison rolled his eyes.

"I have something you guys may want to see," Caitlin said as she walked into the pipeline.

They all turned and followed her back up to the cortex, where she led them to the large computer screen. On it was what looked like a sample of cells, a DNA strand, and some information.

"What is this?" Barry asked.

"I took a sample of Harrison's cells," Caitlin explained, "and ran a few tests on them to see what we could learn." Harrison looked up at the information on the screen, and continued to do so as Caitlin continued, "Your cells are not like anything I've ever seen. Whereas speedsters have an average number of ribosomes, which causes their severe hyperglycemia, you seem to have an abundance of them—as well as mitochondria. Your cells are producing so much energy that your body doesn't need—the source of your powers."

"Now," she continued, expanding the picture of DNA. "This is an average person's DNA. And this—" She pulled up a second strand—"is yours." She continued on to explain all the differences between Harrison and the average person. *****

"You don't look very surprised," Dr. Wells mused aloud with eyes narrowed in curiosity.

"Well this is—" the younger broke off, trying to find the correct words—"Don't get me wrong, it's interesting, but it's just science to explain something that I've known about for a good little while now."

The others nodded sympathetically.

"So he's a metahuman?" Cisco asked Caitlin.

"Yes," she replied with a smile.

Harrison grimaced.

…

This whole debacle made Harrison wonder. He had grown up in the Wizarding World, hearing about witches and wizards since he was eleven. The terms were a second nature to him—he was a wizard, technically No-Maj born since he didn't know about magic before he got his letter, but at the same time he didn't even know who his parents were.

But what if wizard-kind were just metahumans? What if something had happened to two people that made them into a metahuman and then when they had children, those children had the same powers? Was it possible for an average metahuman to pass on their powers? Would their children have the same powers or their own unique set of abilities? How did it _work?_

There were just too many questions.

" _But, wait—"_ came Cisco's voice. _"The particle accelerator gave all the metahumans we know their powers. How did Harrison get his if he's from the past?"_

Harrison turned off the monitoring charms he had cast on the cortex. He didn't need to listen to the others gossiping about him. He already knew where his powers came from—more or less. Most likely, it was his parents whether directly or not. He had a theory going that all No-Maj born children were just the children of Squibs, who had what he dubbed the "wizard gene", but it was dormant. He was still unsure of how many generations caused the regeneration of the gene in a person's DNA, and it was not like he could continue his research in a world where wizards didn't exist.

Harrison sighed. His wand levitated out of the nearest drawer to his outstretched hand. He held it, running it through his fingers absentmindedly. A year ago, he had distanced himself from the MACUSA, giving up his status as a wizard in his society so that he could live with Muggles. Now, all he wanted was to escape back to the Wizarding World. Sure, he didn't agree with a lot of their ideals, but he still was one of them.

And he wasn't one of these metahumans with powers that they used to caused mayhem. The young man wasn't even like Barry. Harrison wasn't a hero.

…

 _He looked around at the smiling crowd that had gathered around him. It was the first time out of Grimmauld Place since the Battle of Hogwarts and it seemed that the entire Wizarding World gravitated towards him. They were cheering and holding out hands to him to shake. People shoved pens and paper at him, shouting "thank you!"s and "we missed you!"s._

" _You're a hero, Harry," the nearest girl, smiled at him._

 _She had bushy brown hair that flew around her face. Two redheads were on the other side of her, looking at him expectantly. Despite his words, "But I don't feel like a hero," the atmosphere was infectious. Slowly, his face broke into a grin._

…

In the West house, six people sat. There were two empty chairs. All of the others were occupied by Joe West, Eddie Thawne, Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, and Barry Allen. They were smiling, laughing, and talking. Barry breathed in deeply the smell of turkey, a wide smile on his face. He had always loved being surrounded by his friends and family. They were what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving.

"Here comes the turkey!" came a happy voice. They looked up to see Iris entering the dining room, carrying the one piece of the meal that had been missing. "Oh, excuse me—sorry—there!"

She set the turkey down on a placemat in the center of the table, taking the mitts off her hands. Cisco bit his lip as he grinned, watching steam spiral out of the bird. Iris smiled at Barry, and then sat by Eddie. She glanced around.

"Where's Dr. Wells?" she asked.

"Oh, he didn't want to come," Caitlin said. "It's—nothing personal of course!"

"Of course," Iris smiled. "I'm sure he's just down. Well, who wants to do the toast?" She looked at her father.

"I think Barry should do it," Cisco said.

The doorbell rang.

"Hang on, I'll get it," Barry stated, hopping out of his chair and setting his napkin down on the table. He bounded over to the door and pulled it open. There he saw—"Harrison!"

"I believe you invited me to dinner?" Harrison muttered.

"Oh, yes," Barry replied. "It's good to see you. Just, stay there." He disappeared in a flash of yellow and then reappeared, setting a wheelchair behind Harrison, who fell over into it in surprise.

"You didn't take my doppelganger's chair did you?" he asked incredulously.

"Oh, no," Barry replied. "He actually gave this to me…to give to you. This way you can get out and people will just think you're him."

Harrison shook his head and then looked down at the controls.

"I guess I'll have to learn how to use these eventually anyway, won't I?"

Barry said nothing. The silence between them weighed heavy when both men realized that Harrison's sad excuse for a joke was a very real fact—that being paralyzed was in his future. Trying to diffuse the tension, Harrison prodded warily at one unlabeled button. The chair jerked backwards and he let out a yell. He pressed another one and then it moved forward an inch or so.

"How do I move this thing?" he asked, pressing the button again. Nothing happened.

Then, he glanced at what looked at a joystick. He pushed it forward and the chair went forward.

"Oh."

Barry laughed, "Come on inside."

So, testing out the controls on this new chair, Harrison followed his friend inside. With difficulty, he navigated around the furniture in the Wests' house. Then, he pulled up to the table and came to a stop in the space that Barry made for him. The speedster set down the chair that went in the space against the wall before sitting in his own chair.

"Toast?" Caitlin asked as they all picked up their drinks.

"Actually, I think _Doctor Wells_ should do the toast," Barry said, putting his emphasis on Wells, with a knowing smile.

Harrison laughed.

"I have not been very thankful lately," the young man muttered. "But recently I realized I have a lot to be thankful for. So, a toast," he said, lifting his glass, "to friends. With all of you, I have accomplished a lot more than I thought I could have."

* * *

 ***So, I didn't know much about DNA and didn't want to BS my way through an explanation, but it's not that important to the plot anyway. I tried looking at different DNA mutations, but while I may _like_ science, I'm not necessarily a science person, so I didn't understand much of it. **

**The important part of this bit you need to take away is that the Flash team are nosy scientists that like understanding things-and have therefore assumed that Harrison is a metahuman-and Harrison's theory about the "wizard gene". The wizard gene isn't that important to the plot either, that's just _my_ theory about muggleborns. :) Hope you enjoyed, review if you did, and also review your thoughts on metahumans and wizards and genes. Until next time...**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own the Flash.**

 **A couple of things to address: Firstly, I don't know if any of you caught that I posted a chapter a few minutes ago, but long story short, for a few terrifying seconds I thought the internet deleted eighteen chapters of my story. It must have been some glitch, because I opened the same document in a different location and all of the chapters were back, so...thank the Lord!**

 **Secondly, someone reviewed asking why no one's questioning that Harrison has power and the older Dr. Wells doesn't. Yeah, that's not really something I thought of addressing because they are assuming that Harrison's powers has to do with _their_ particle accelerator and _their_ timeline. I don't want to spoil much for people who are currently going through the Flash series for the first time, but Flash timelines are messed up and, frankly, don't make a lot of sense. *cough* Reverse Flash *cough* (anyone who has watched through should know what I mean, especially if they've seen the latest crossover episode.) I will, however, let you know that they begin to start questioning things more soon. For now, just go along with the ride and don't question their lack of questioning any further :)**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight:**

It didn't feel like Christmas. Nor did it feel like he had been away from home for nearly two months. It felt like just yesterday he had been sitting at the beach with Tess—yet at the same time it felt like he had been stranded for an eternity. Yet here Harrison found himself, still in STAR Labs as the month of December slowly wore on.

Harrison looked down at the gift that had been shoved into his hands.

"It's a small token of my gratitude for everything you guys have done for me," Barry explained to the four of them as they looked at their gifts.

"I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues, Barry, when I say that you have been a gift to us this year," Dr. Wells replied with a smile.

"What's that?" Caitlin asked, eyeing a large red thermos in Barry's hand.

"This," the speedster replied, "is compliments of Iris. Grandma Ester's famous eggnog."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Cisco exclaimed.

Harrison laughed with a roll of his eyes, leaning up against the desk.

Dr. Wells cleared his throat and muttered, "Maybe later for me. Wouldn't want to drink and drive."

He wheeled away holding his unopen present.

"Did I say something wrong?" Barry asked.

"No," Caitlin replied.

"No, man," Cisco replied. "He, um…This used to be his favorite time of year, but the accident happened before Christmas. So, it kind of ruined the holidays."

"I'm going to go get him a present," Caitlin said, handing her mug of eggnog back to Barry. "Maybe that will cheer him up."

Harrison hovered awkwardly in the doorway, scratching his nose and looking down as she passed him. He felt as though he was eavesdropping in a private conversation—only it was gossip about him…from the future. Where there laws against him hearing things like this? Now that he heard this, did it mean that he had to hate the holidays whether he actually did or not? Remembering Dr. Wells's words, " _This—is your future. If you find out too much, it may disrupt the timeline. If you stay here and listen in to anything that's going on, you—have—to—repeat—everything—the—exact—same—way._ Do you understand me _? Otherwise there's no telling what disasters may happen."_

Suddenly his head hurt.

Attempting to shake it away, the young man slouched out of the room, running his hands through his hair and making it stand on end. He wandered through the hallways until he reached the bulkhead that sealed off the pipeline. There, he sat heavily on the steps. He glanced down at the unopened gift in his hands. Then, he set it aside.

The dark-haired young man took off his glasses and ran his hands down his face with a sigh. If there was any time he wanted to be home, it was Christmas. This was just…too much. He was too confused. How was he supposed to return to his own time and redo everything exactly to what he had seen here? Should he just stay in the future? But then that would mean he would never be with Tess again.

Harrison sighed once more and glanced around. His eyes caught on the gift Barry had given him. Slowly, he reached out and picked up the package. He stared at it for a second before meticulously unwrapping it. There, he found a white box that was taped shut. The young man pulled off the tape and opened the box.

Inside he could see a black mug that was fitted in a Styrofoam mold. He slid out the mold, and pulled the mug from it. Harrison caught a glimpse of white text. The black-haired man held up the mug, turning it to read the words:

" _If you're interested in time travel, meet me last Thursday."_

Harrison laughed quietly.

"I thought that mug would make you laugh," Barry said, sauntering over to sit beside Harrison. At the other man's inquisitive look, Barry replied, "I saw you sneak out."

"All of this is just so confusing," Harrison muttered. "I don't know what to do."

Barry leaned back, and said with half a laugh, "I never thought I would be sitting and giving Harrison Wells advice. You know, before the particle accelerator blew, I didn't even know him. I read his biography at least six times, thoroughly excited that a man pushed science to its furthest boundaries. It gave me hope that maybe I could do something with my life."

"And now you're working with him to save people," Harrison muttered. "I would call that 'doing something with your life'."

"You're right," Barry replied. "I may not know what to tell you. I've never been in your situation. Time travel—it's kind of new to me. But I will tell you to live in the present—well—future. Don't waste away wishing you were back home and not doing anything about it. Enjoy your life. That's more than I did for most of my life."

"Thanks," Harrison muttered, still looking at the ground.

"No problem," Barry yawned and stretched, getting to his feet.

"And Barry?" Barry paused in the doorway. "Thanks for the mug."

They both laughed and then the speedster exited, leaving Harrison alone again. With an air of determination, Harrison got to his feet and stalked out. He went to the room where they had been working on time equations. Picking up a marker, Harrison set to work. The young man paused as he saw movement reflect on the clear board. Before he could identify the source, there was an impact on the side of his skull and he slumped to the floor.

…

When Harrison came to, he discovered that he was sitting up. He blinked and slowly opened his eyes, instantly regretting it as a harsh light blinded him. His vision swam and he pulled on his wrist, discovering that it was cuffed to something. The young man's sight cleared and he saw that his wrist was indeed secured to what looked like his doppelganger's wheelchair.

"Where—" Harrison blinked, pulling on his wrist and looking at the chair in a dazed confusion. "Where am I?"

"I call it my time vault."

Harrison jumped and looked over to see his doppelganger sitting in a chair observing him. At seeing that he had been spotted, the older man's mouth twitched into an eerie grin and he gave a short wave.

"Doctor Wells!" the younger exclaimed. "W-what's going on?"

He pulled on his wrist futilely.

"I am going to ask you one question," Wells said quietly, leaning forward and locking eyes with the younger version of himself, "who are you?"

"I-I don't understand," Harrison muttered. "I told you—I—"

"No," the man cut him off softly. "No, no, no, _no_. You see, things just don't add up. I've been wondering for a while—you see, you kept disappearing every single time Barry found a new metahuman to fight. One cannot spend _that much time_ on speed equations. You didn't even flinch when Barry used his powers around you—almost as though you were used strange occurrences. So then I began to wonder—you were keeping things from us. Then— _then_ I found out that you're a _metahuman_. You have telekinesis abilities. But something's still off about you. There's something you're still not telling us. Who are you? Are you really who you say you are?"

"Of—of course I am!" Harrison exclaimed. "I'm not hiding anything!"

"You're lying," Wells whispered. "So tell me. Who are you? _Really_?"

"Perhaps I should be asking you the same thing."

It didn't look quite as impressive when he tried to do it—lean forward and talk in a quietly sinister voice. The effect was ruined just a little by the fact that he was incapacitated, his hand chained to a wheelchair. Nonetheless, the older Dr. Wells leaned back and tapped his lips thoughtfully, a calculating look in his eyes.

"You really don't know, do you?" he asked. Harrison stared at him with blank confusion. He laughed. "I had thought that you had come here to ruin my plans, and no one—no one can get in my way. But you don't even know who I am, do you?"

"So you aren't me?" Harrison asked. "You aren't Harrison Wells?"

But the man simply tapped his lips, not saying a word either way. Harrison didn't care—his mind was now set in his belief. He had suspected that something was off about this man, and boy, had he been correct.

"So, uh, now that we've gotten this all sorted out, can you let me go?" Harrison asked, flexing his hand in its bond.

Wells laughed a ringing, eerie laugh that set Harrison's hairs on end.

"The thing is—" he said with a smile. "I don't need you. You have nothing to do with my plan. You can't effect this timeline. In fact, with you locked away you would be less of a threat than if you were out there—changing the equation."

"But you have the others eating right out of your hand," Harrison argued. "If I just disappear, they will get suspicious. Now we can't have that, can we?"

The both of them stared at the other, at an impasse.

"You're right," the elder Wells—whoever he was—finally whispered. "But I promise you, Harrison Wells, I will figure you out."

And with that he revealed a metal cylinder he had been clenching in his hand. He slammed it into the side of Harrison's skull. When he awoke once more in his bedroom, he remembered nothing of their encounter.

…

"The witness described seeing a yellow blur," Joe explained to them in the cortex. "Just like the one that killed Barry's mother."

"Then we need to get cracking and stop this speed psycho," Cisco said, stuffing a candy cane in his mouth. He paused. "That was _not_ me trying to give him a nickname."

"The crime scene at Mercury Labs was on a floor with high security vaults," Barry continued. "And the witness said he was looking for something."

"Whatever it was, he wanted it badly enough to kill for it," Dr. Wells mused.

"Doctor, what do you know about Mercury Labs?" Joe asked.

"Mercury was one of STAR Labs main competitors until our little setback, and then it—" he hit his hands together—"catapulted to the forefront led by Dr. Christina McGee, brilliant but egocentric physicist."

"Says here Dr. McGee has secured half a billion dollars in private funding to develop, and I quote, 'prototypes for the technology of the future'," Cisco read.

"Well, I'll be…" the older Wells muttered. "Tina's messing with tachyons."

Joe gave him a questioning look.

"Superluminal particles," Wells explained.

"Of course," Joe muttered. "So, what could someone with one of those…" He fiddled his fingers.

"Tachyons."

"Thank you," Joe finished.

"Well, I don't know," Dr. Wells whispered. "Become invincible. If you could devise a matrix stable enough to harness their power, you could—" he bumped his hands together thoughtfully—"travel faster than light."

"He's gonna try again," Barry muttered. "So we need to get what Mercury has and use it as a lure."

"Exactly right," Dr. Wells muttered. Then he pointed at Harrison, Cisco, and Caitlin, "You three—start engineering a trap."

"Of course," Caitlin muttered, turning and heading out of the room.

"You got it," Cisco replied. He turned as well and then glanced at Harrison. Quieter, he asked, "You okay, man?"

Harrison, who had completely zoned out, blinked.

"Yeah," he said faintly, following after the long-haired man still looking slightly dazed.

…

"I think we can fashion an electronic barrier, right?" Cisco said proudly, waving his iPad around. Harrison, who had been staring at a wall, slowly turned to look at him. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah," Harrison ran a hand over his face. "I'm just finding it hard to focus. I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something…"

"I can come back later," Cisco said, waving his hands around some more and pointing to the door.

"Uh, yeah," Harrison muttered, blinking at the floor.

The other man nodded and did just that. From the other room, Harrison could hear Cisco repeat the words he had just said previously, this time to Caitlin. Then he continued, saying, "If we set up a ton of supercapacitors, we smooth out the inflection points and—" there was the sound of a snap. "Voila. A kick-ass force field to trap the Opposite Flash. That was me trying out a name." Harrison blinked once more when Cisco's voice drifted to him again. "What is _wrong_ with everybody today?"

…

"The tachyon device is in place," Cisco muttered. "Do you think it'll work?"

"It'll work," Barry replied. "So how do we advertise to him that the prototypes are here?"

"We'll take care of that," Dr. Wells replied.

Barry looked from him to Joe. Noticing their stern gazes, he glanced between them and asked, "What's the problem?"

Wells looked at Joe, who said, "Look, Barry. Me and Dr. Wells think it would be best if you sit this one out."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're too close to this."

"Maybe you're not close enough!" Barry exclaimed. "If you hadn't been too scared and warned me weeks ago, I could have been prepared for this."

"I think we can all appreciate Joe's concern for Iris, Barry," Dr. Wells interrupted.

"That's why I have to be here!" Barry insisted. "I'm our only chance at catching this guy!"

"Not right now," Joe argued. "Not like this."

With a level stare, Barry's chest heaved as he breathed in and then let his breath go in a large gust.

…

Harrison caught up to Barry just outside of STAR Labs.

"I'll come with you," he said, hailing a taxi. The two got in. To the driver, Harrison said, "Central City Park."

"I thought you weren't allowed to wander the city," Barry muttered, turning to him.

Harrison waved his hand in front of his face and a ski mask appeared on it.

"Hang on, now it's going to look like I'm a robber," Harrison muttered. He waved his hand again and a hat with a low bill replaced the ski mask. "That's better."

"What all can your powers do?" Barry asked in surprise.

"A whole variety of stuff," Harrison replied waving his hand dismissively, "but that's not why I'm here."

"Why _are_ you here? Shouldn't you be helping catch my mom's killer?"

"No," Harrison replied. "I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm still a secret to most of the city and the man in yellow plus an entire task force is gonna be in there. No, I am here to give you this."

He handed Barry his phone.

"You're phone?" the speedster asked skeptically.

"They don't call me a genius for nothing," the man added, pressing the home screen. Video surveillance of the trap popped up. "I hacked into Cisco's surveillance footage. Thought you might want to watch."

"Doctor Wells can hack?" Barry asked incredulously.

"I don't make a habit of it," Harrison muttered.

He pulled a pair of earbuds out of his pocket, connecting them to the phone and sticking one in his ear. The other went in Barry's ear and they sat on a bench nearby. They listened to the chatter of the others, everyone waiting for something to happen. Before long, the taxi came to a halt. Harrison paid the driver and then the two of them got out and sat on a nearby bench. When they resumed, Eddie was speaking, skeptical it would work. Cisco argued that it would. It was much like a usual evening that Harrison would spend in his room before the others knew about the Midnight Phantom, eavesdropping on their conversations.

Harrison shot straight up.

"The Midnight Phantom," he said. Barry looked at him curiously. "If they have trouble, the Midnight Phantom can help!"

"You realize you're talking about yourself in the third person right?" Barry asked. Harrison shook his head and slumped once more, resuming his previous state of boredom as they waited for something to happen. "And what about me? I'm still stuck out here."

Harrison sighed.

"I don't know. I'm sure if things fall to shambles they won't mind you running in?"

"Not very reassuring."

Silence fell and they watched the footage. Suddenly there was a red flash and a yellow speedster was zooming around the force field, attempting to get out.

"Looks like they caught something," Harrison noted. Both of them sat up and bent over, watching it attentively.

They watched as the task force entered the room, followed by Joe and Wells. At Wells's instruction over a com-system, Cisco turned on the lights and illuminated a vibrating, yellow figure. Barry's nose flared and he glared at the figure. He moved, as though to stand up, and Harrison put a hand out to stop him. They both sat on the edge of their seats, watching with worry now.

" _Detective Thawne_?" Wells asked. " _Would you like to read him his rights_?"

Harrison looked at Thawne. He had his gun clenched in front of him, ready to shoot. Joe, however, had his lowered slightly.

" _Joe, what are you doing?_ " Thawne exclaimed.

" _Getting some answers."_ He took a step forward. _"Fourteen years ago you murdered Nora Allen. I want to know why._ Why _?"_

Ignoring Joe completely, the man in yellow stood facing them and said in a deep, raspy voice, " _Dr. Wells. We meet at last."_

" _What do you want with the tachyonic particles?"_

" _My goals are beyond your understanding."_

Dr. Wells folded his hands in his lap and said, _"Oh, I don't know. I'm a pretty smart guy. I knew you were exceptionally fast, so any trap we manufactured would have to be invisible."_

"Why is he just sitting there talking?!" Harrison hissed.

"They need to go ahead and knock him out," Barry muttered. "Take him to the pipeline."

"– _I knew your cells could repair them_ selves _at an extraordinary speed so you could withstand the damage this is doing to your body right now. The reason I know all this is because your powers are almost exactly like those of the Flash."_

" _Oh, I'm not like the Flash at all. Some would say I'm the Reverse."_

Cisco's voice interrupted, saying, _"The footage is down! Guys, you need to get out of there!"_

"But our footage is still working," Barry mumbled.

He and Harrison shared a look of concern.

There was a red flash and next thing they knew, they were watching a video of the man in yellow pounding on a form that suddenly had appeared in the force field. With a jolt, Harrison realized it was him. Without saying a word to each other, both men stood. Harrison stuffed his phone in his pocket and transfigured his clothes into his black suit. While he did so, Barry sped off to STAR Labs. Harrison turned on his heel and apparated after.

The scene Harrison met was mass confusion. The task force was beginning to flee. Joe was shouting to Cisco over the com-system to shut off the barrier, who adamantly argued that the man in yellow would get free.

"Just do it," Joe screamed. "He's gonna kill Wells!"

"Do you think I can apparate in there?" Harrison asked Joe, who stared at him with wide, blank eyes.

"That's right you don't know what that is," Harrison muttered. He turned on his heel and fell over. It seemed this barrier created a field that prevented apparition.

Joe lifted something, prepared to break the capacitors. Harrison thrust out both hands and they warped and ripped away, breaking the barrier. The man in yellow disappeared in a red flash, leaving behind a bloodied Dr. Wells. Harrison rushed forward to check on him…self.

"Find him!" Thawne shouted.

There was another red flash and the man in yellow stood before the doorway. The task force, Joe, and Eddie raised their guns. Harrison raised both hands.

"Don't move, or we will shoot," Thawne shouted.

Suddenly, all of the task force remaining was knocked out. The man in yellow came to a halt before Thawne, knocking the gun out of his hands but not coming any closer. Joe shot and then the figure flashed forward, grabbing him by the throat.

"I warned you not to hunt me," he growled.

With that, he was gone. By then, Barry had made it to the room in time to see him leave. Then, he followed him out. Harrison took himself to the med-bay and laid him down on a bed. Then, he disapparated. Appearing outside STAR Labs, he came to a halt by Cisco and Caitlin in time to see the man in yellow pick himself off the ground, saying, "Our race is not yet over. See you soon, Flash."

Harrison looked beyond him to see a man who's head and hands were on fire.

"Ronnie!" Caitlin cried.

The man looked at her.

"Never come looking for me again," the man muttered, flying off.

Cisco ran forward and helped Barry up.

…

Later Harrison and Cisco stood in the med-bay while Caitlin patched up Dr. Wells.

"I've been going over the data, and I still don't know why the containment system failed. I must have missed something," Cisco said, looking down at his iPad. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Cisco," both Wells replied.

"But," the older one continued, "if you both feel the need to apologize for something, you can start with not telling me that Ronnie is still alive."

"I asked Cisco not to say anything," Caitlin told him. "Once I saw what Ronnie had become, I needed…I needed time to see if I could make him whole again. I'm sorry. I know you're mad."

"No," Dr. Wells replied, shaking his head. "I don't know what I would have done differently in your situation. I know I've made you a lot of promises. I know I've not been able to keep them all. But on my life I promise you this: We will bring Ronnie home."

Caitlin smiled and nodded.

…

"Hey!"

Harrison looked up to see Joe and Barry enter the room.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" Barry asked, setting down his coat and closing the door.

"I invited them," Joe informed him. "Where's Dr. Wells?"

"Right here," Harrison said, rolling out from behind the couch. Joe walked closer and he whispered, "My counterpart wasn't feeling up to it."

Joe nodded.

"I've run into a dilemma in the meantime," Harrison said to Barry. "What do we do if he ever decides to come to a gathering at the West house?"

"Make you wear the suit," Barry whispered.

Harrison laughed. Once he walked over to congratulate Iris and Eddie on moving in together, Cisco sidled up.

"Hey, Joe," he said. "I saw something weird tonight."

"Yeah, I did too."

"No, I mean—" Cisco tried to explained. "When the Flash and the man in yellow were going full bumper cars on each other, I was watching the electricity coming off them. Yellow and red electricity. When Barry was a kid, he said he saw red and yellow lightning."

"There were two of them," Joe concluded, receiving a nod.

"The man in yellow may have killed Barry's mother, but there was another speedster there that night."

Joe, Cisco, and Harrison turned to look at Barry, who was laughing at something Eddie had said.

…

Harrison Wells stepped back from a glass case. twirling something long and smooth between his fingers. It seemed he had only just begun to crack the code that protected his doppelganger's secrets. Remembering the promise he had made to the young man earlier that day, he looked down at the object he held in his hand—something that he hardly dared name.

How and why was his doppelganger in possession of a fully functioning wand—something that should only exist in fiction? Looking once more upon the yellow suit behind the glass, now adorned with a mechanism that held the tachyons, Wells whispered to himself, "Merry Christmas."

* * *

 **So Wells knows Harrison's secret, and they are no closer to catching the man in yellow. I got inspiration from Well's interrogation scene from that one episode in Season Two. I figured that Wells _would_ be suspicious of Harrison, because he knows he's not supposed to be a metahuman, and would therefore confront him in some way. This starts the beginning of their mistrust for Wells...or at least it would if Harrison could remember what happened. **

**And I felt very in the Christmas mood, posting this chapter that I wrote months ago only six days from Christmas. So, uh, I wish you an early Merry Christmas. I'll probably be posting more chapters soon.**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Flash.**

 **I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your reviews. It lets me know that people are actually reading my stuff! It also lets me know of any questions you have. One that has popped up multiple times lately, is the questioning of how Harrison is weak.**

 **Beside the fact that I always hate writing invincible characters, the reason for this is actually simply because he is using wandless magic. In the Harry Potter books, you don't really ever see wandless magic. Wandless magic, according to the Harry Potter wiki, is less accurate and more difficult to manage. The fact that Harrison can perform wandless magic at all shows that he is indeed a prodigy, however he is still struggling with it slightly. You will see, as the story continues, that he uses different forms of wandless magic more freely and easily.**

 **Also, good guess. His wand was in a drawer. Stupid, I know, but he didn't expect people to be searching his rooms and doesn't use it anyway (a habit from his past).**

 **Now, on with the show!**

* * *

 **Chapter Nine:**

" _Oh, Barry, there's an intersection coming up_ ," came Caitlin's voice over the com-unit.

"Where am I going?" Harrison asked as the motorcyclists he and the Flash were attempting to corner zoomed out of sight.

" _Intersection at 5_ _th_ _and Denver!"_ came Cisco's voice.

"Got it," Harrison muttered, turning on his heel and disappearing. He reappeared at an intersection. As he appeared, the light turned red and two motorcycles drove up. One turned right on 5th avenue, and the other turned left. He put up a hand to his com system. "I'm taking the one on the right. Barry, go left."

" _You gotcha!_ "

Turning to face the right side of the street, Harrison fixed his eyes at the top of the hill. Seconds later, he appeared there with a _CRACK!_

He thrust out his fist, sending a wave of pure, raw magic. The motorcyclist just barely missed the blast, doing a full one-eighty and speeding off.

"Oh, come _on!_ "

Meanwhile, Dr. Wells was speaking over the com-unit to Barry.

" _Queen is trying to make it to the bridge, but I have a shortcut."_

Harrison caught sight of King making a right hand turn at the nearest street. Harrison apparated there, seeing that the man was heading to the interstate.

" _And left. Left. Right."_

" _I see her,"_ came Barry's voice.

" _Make her go west before Freemont,"_ Dr. Wells replied.

King made a right. Panting heavily, Harrison followed after.

" _Harrison,"_ came Dr. Wells.

"Yeah?" Harrison called, throwing out another blast that the rider nimbly dodged. It reminded him of a chaser dodging a bludger. He shook his head.

" _King is headed to the interstate. I recommend you do the same as Barry and set up road blocks that force them to convene._ "

"Got it," the wizard replied.

He apparated to the end of the road the man he was following was on, conjuring barriers across it. The cyclist turned around and began riding back down the street. Harrison then conjured more barriers at the next intersection, making the man take a right once more. The young man followed after, catching sight of another cyclist riding towards the one he was chasing, and a third coming from the left hand side.

" _Checkmate_ ," Dr. Wells muttered.

Barry flashed up, running between the three criminals and shouting, "Got the keys!" as he grabbed the keys to their motorcycles. Police cars, with their lights flashing and sirens wailing, skidded to a halt all around the motorcycles.

Barry ran over to where Harrison stood, giving him a fist-bump.

"Race you back!" he cried, before flashing off.

Harrison grinned, shook his head, and turned on his heel. He reappeared in STAR Labs. Barry arrived seconds later.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" the wizard asked, pulling the mask off his head, "I travel in one instant. I will always beat you."

Barry laughed, pulling his own mask off.

"Great job out there man," Barry said.

"Thanks," Harrison replied. He walked over to Cisco. "Hey man, next time we go chasing after people on vehicles, can I have _some_ sort of gadget that lets me keep up? I was struggling out there."

"I'll see what I can do," Cisco grinned, eager to make something new.

"Efficiently done, you two," Wells said, spinning around to face them.

"We need a picture," Cisco said.

"I think rule number one of having a secret identity is not taking pictures in your super-suit without your mask on," Barry laughed.

"Oh, come on, please?" Cisco pleaded. "This is just for us. Just to document this."

"Who knows?" Dr. Wells added. "Maybe people in the future will want to know how all of this happened."

Harrison and Barry shared a look.

"All right," Barry replied. "If the futures wants to know how this all happened, we all need to be in it."

"Let me put on some make-up first!" Caitlin protested.

"The future doesn't care about your makeup!" Cisco argued.

Harrison, Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells lined up, the elder Wells in front in his chair. Barry stood in front of them, holding out his phone. "Okay," he said. "Big smiles!" They willingly obliged. "Three, two, one!"

A streak of yellow dashed from behind the desk to behind them, the camera flashed, and then the speedster ran back. Barry reappeared, holding the phone once more.

"Does that count as a selfie?" Caitlin asked.

"Absolutely," Barry replied with a grin.

The scarlet-clad man handed Cisco back his phone, who admired the picture. Harrison walked over. "Now you better not show that to anyone," he joked. "Wouldn't want anyone to know my identity."

"Well yeah, there's two of you!" Cisco exclaimed.

Harrison laughed. It felt good being a part of the team while he helped out Barry.

…

" _Left. Right. Right. Left. Aaahhhh!"_

" _What are you boys doing?"_

 _Harrison and his best friend looked up from the handheld video game at Harrison's mother._

" _Just playing, Mother," Harrison replied, holding up the game._

" _Go on outside," she shooed with a smile. "It's too sunny a day for you to be indoors."_

" _All right," Harrison and his friend, Mick, hung their heads and trooped outside. They ran across the street to the only large tree in the neighborhood, climbed up it, and situated themselves beside each other on a rather thick branch. There, they resumed their previous game—Harrison using his fast mind to direct his friend, who pushed the controls on the game._

 _A few minutes later, Harrison was exclaiming, "I told you to go right!"_

" _I'm sorry I pushed the wrong control!"_

" _Well, that's too bad," Harrison muttered. "Wanna go do something else?"_

 _He dropped down from the tree._

" _Like what?" Mick called down. He came down with slightly more difficulty—attempting to find footholds on his way down._

" _I don't know," Harrison replied. He paused, thinking. "Let's go to the library."_

 _Mick fell the last foot or so, landing on his butt. Rubbing it as he stood up, he grumbled, "Most kids go and explore drainage ditches. I'm stuck going to the library."_

 _Harrison laughed and helped his friend to his feet._

" _Come on," he said._

…

Harrison couldn't help but gape at his house—his future self's house, that is. The grand awning that led to large set of double doors. The large and spacious foyer that led to a shiny sitting room. There was no clutter of scientific notes, stacks of books, or models to be seen. Every surface was spotless and empty. The only thing that marred the entire place was the glass that was littered along the ground—a result of the shattered sky lights ahead.

Running ahead of the two gaping boys, Caitlin exclaimed, "Dr. Wells! Dr. Wells, are you okay?"

"Dr. Snow, I'm fine," Wells replied, turning in his wheelchair to smile reassuringly at her. "A little chilly. Otherwise fine. Hello Cisco, Harrison—" he stopped and his smile froze. Quietly, glancing at the police officers in the room, he hissed, "What are you doing here."

"Coming with these two to make sure you're all right," Harrison replied hesitantly.

Wells looked as though he was going to argue, but then his chest heaved angrily and he muttered, "Make yourselves at home the best you can. I'm going to go make a hotel reservation."

Harrison glanced at the fireplace that lined an entire wall.

"This place is so sick," Cisco laughed, staring around as well.

"Yeah," Barry agreed, walking up. "Hey, what took you guys so long getting here?"

"We got lost," Cisco replied.

"We've never been here before," Caitlin explained.

Barry looked surprised.

"Really, never?"

"He tends to keep his private life private," the doctor replied.

While they continued to talk, Harrison glanced over at his doppelganger, who was just hanging up the phone. The younger walked over and then asked curiously, "What happened?"

"You realize you're not supposed to know too much about your own future, right?" Wells retorted looked up at him with a piercing gaze. Harrison floundered. "Oh well, I suppose since you're already going to find out anyway…Yesterday evening I received a prank call. Then the windows broke."

"Who would want to do something like this?" Harrison asked, looking around at the shattered glass.

"You would be surprised just how many people do not believe I received the proper justice after the particle accelerator blew."

Harrison nodded. Then, he asked cautiously, "What would happen if I were to—say, not build the particle accelerator after seeing what damage it causes?"

Dr. Wells stared at him.

"You don't understand," he muttered after a second. "Time travel is a tricky thing. Whatever tragedy you try to revert, time will just find a way to replace it. This is why people are not meant to travel to the future. Everything you see is one possibility among infinite others. Every decision you make can alter the timeline just a little."

"So I could change it!"

"No!" Wells whispered loudly. "Let's say you prevent the explosion in the particle accelerator. What happens then? No metahumans to wreak havoc on Central City—"

"More people alive then—"

"With lack of super criminals, crime rate could rise. Or maybe if the creation of metahumans is a fixed point in time, a meteor could hit earth and do even more damage. There's no telling what could happen, but are you willing to take the chance in letting everything you know change?"

Harrison sighed and looked down.

"You're right," he muttered. He walked over to Cisco and Caitlin and clapped both of them on the shoulder. "I'm gonna get back to STAR Labs before someone sees me."

He turned on his heel and disappeared with a _CRACK_! Caitlin jumped.

"Even with Barry zooming around all the time, I'm still not used to seeing _Harrison Wells_ disappear into thin air at a moment's notice," she mumbled with a shiver.

Cisco nodded with a laugh.

…

"Hartley Rathaway possesses one of the finest minds I have ever encountered," Dr. Wells explained to them. They were all standing in the cortex, looking at a photo of this Rathaway character on the nearest screen.

"Any ties to Rathaway Industries?" Joe asked.

"His grandfather founded the company and his father expanded it. Hartley here was set to inherit the throne."

"What happened?" Barry asked, catching note of the past tense.

"He 'came out' to his family," Caitlin replied. "Old money—old values."

"They were estranged when we met, but brilliant," Wells continued. "I couldn't have built the particle accelerator without him."

"You guys have never even mentioned his name," Barry noted, confused.

"That's because Hartley had a…" Caitlin trailed off. "…challenging personality."

"What she means is, he was mostly a jerk," Cisco added. "But every now and then he could be a dick."

Joe laughed.

"Let's just say that Hartley, like many outliers, had trouble relating to his peers," Wells interceded.

"Yes, but he was always your favorite," Caitlin muttered with her arms crossed.

"The chosen one," Cisco added. At Wells' incredulous look, he added, "He referred to himself like that."

"So if you two were so close, why would he target you?" Joe asked.

"Hartley left STAR Labs about a year ago after we had a…disagreement."

"About what?"

Wells looked up at Joe with a resolute look, his green eyes glinting.

"Look, don't worry," Barry interrupted. "We'll stop him. I won't let him hurt you. Any of you." He looked at Joe. "Let's get back to my lab, all right?"

With one last look at Wells, Joe turned and followed his adopted son out of the building.

"I could have gone my entire life without seeing that jerk again," Cisco grumbled.

"That bad, huh?" Harrison asked. Cisco didn't say anything. He simply made a face and walked away. Harrison shook his head, wondering in his choice in judgement when hiring someone as rude as this character. He supposed that it made sense if he was so instrumental in the building of the particle accelerator.

…

Harrison and Cisco were working on the "speed canon" when Caitlin came running in.

"Rathaway Industries is under attack," she said.

Harrison hopped to his feet and disappeared. When he regained his bearings, the first thing he noticed was shattering glass. Holes kept appearing in the side of the building as the glass was ruptured. Harrison's eyes followed the path of the blast in reverse to see a dark figure with shining gauntlets around his wrist—attached to a pair of gloves.

A few police cars drove in front of him, temporarily blocking his view before the figure—Hartley—began blasting at _them_. Harrison leapt over the nearest car, using magic to catapult himself.

"Get back!" he shouted to the police men, who were being more of a hindrance than a help.

"Now this is surprising," Rathaway sneered. "The Midnight Phantom in the flesh. Where's your scarlet buddy?"

Harrison smirked as his eye caught a glimpse of yellow lightning. Then, Rathaway was shoved over from behind. As Barry stood over him, he grinned and stated, "It's over, Rathaway."

"You know my name!" Rathaway said with a giddy smile. "I know some names too. Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Harrison Wells." Over Rathaway's head, Barry and Harrison's gazes met. "I can hear the radio waves emanating from both of your suits," he glanced over at the Phantom, getting to his feet. "About 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening? Are they gonna hear you die?"

"No," Barry replied. "They're gonna hear you get your ass kicked."

"Okay," Rathaway replied, his sneer returning.

He thrust out a hand and his gloves emitted a frequency that knocked the Flash back.

"I can do that too," Harrison muttered from behind him. He thrust out his own hand and Hartley flew back. Then, he clenched his hand and made a lifting gesture. Rathaway was jolted into the air and then dropped. Before he could get to his feet, Barry had recovered. The Flash ran to the nearby police men, grabbing their truncheons and tossing them at him.

Hartley thrust his hands out, trying to hit the scarlet speedster, but Barry saw an opening. He rushed forward, grabbed the gloves, and ripped them off of Rathaway's hands. He threw them to the ground and grinned. "Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says."

"Smart enough to have figure out who Harrison Wells really is," Hartley retorted. "You see, I know his secret."

Barry's face contorted in anger. He grabbed Hartley by the scruff of his neck and ran off. Shaking his head, Harrison disapparated. He was still getting used to Barry's need for theatrics. He didn't need another drama queen around.

Harrison reappeared in the lobby of STAR Labs, in between Cisco and Caitlin. Not long after, the elevator opened and revealed the Flash and Hartley. As Barry shoved the cuffed man forward, Hartley jeered, "Being scooped up by a leather-clad man has been a long-time fantasy of mine, so thanks." He looked around at the other three standing there. "Well, well, well the gang's all here. And the Midnight Phantom. I knew you always showed up whenever the Flash was around. Didn't know you worked for him. How does it feel being second best?"

"Lay off, Hartley," Cisco muttered.

"You've lasted a lot longer than I would have thought, Cisco," the man retorted.

"And you didn't last ten seconds against the Flash," Cisco replied.

"I was thinking of calling myself the Pied Piper," Rathaway muttered.

"Hey," Cisco interrupted. "I assign the nicknames around here…though that one isn't bad."

Hartley turned to Caitlin with a smug smile.

"Caitlin," he said. "Never did get that wedding invite."

"Shut the hell up," Barry hissed, shoving him forward.

Cisco put his hands on Hartley's back to do the same, growling, "Stay in front of me."

Harrison and Barry both shared looks of annoyance before simultaneously pulling their masks off and heading in to the cortex. There, they watched the surveillance footage of the pipeline where Hartley was still trying to pick a fight with Cisco and Caitlin.

" _Enough, Hartley_." Wells had entered the room. He looked at his two friends and said, " _can you give us a minute?_ "

The two nodded and left the room. Once they had gone, both Hartley and Wells began talking in Latin.

"Man I wish I had taken a foreign language in high school," Barry muttered.

"You're not missing much," Harrison muttered. "Other than more insults."

Then, Wells asked in English, " _How did you know we were working with the Flash?"_

" _I wrote a hexagonal algorithm,"_ Hartley replied, " _tracking all of his sightings, extrapolating a theoretical exit trajectory. In other words, every time he ran from the scene of a crime he ran in this general direction. The Midnight Phantom, on the other hand, was much harder to track. Tell me, why do you have two pet metahumans?"_

Wells scoffed. Then, he sighed. _"You are brilliant. And any anguish you've been through because of me was never my intent."_

" _Not bad as far as heartfelt apologies go. But that wasn't for me. It was for the Flash."_ He looked straight up at the camera, giving the two superheroes in the room a start. " _It feels great to have the great Harrison Wells behind you, doesn't it? But one day, he will turn on you in a flash. And even you won't see it coming."_ Barry stared down at the screen, anger written all over his face. He glanced up at Harrison with an odd expression. _"I only hope he leaves you in better shape than he left me. If you're lucky you'll only be dead. But_ I _have to live with the piercing, agonizing screaming in my ears_."

Wells started turning away and Hartley laughed.

" _I almost forgot. I told your pet that I know your deep, dark secret, Harrison. Have fun letting him in on that one._ "

Harrison's eyes hardened. He had gotten used to him being called Harrison and his counterpart being called Dr. Wells. Hearing this jerk use _his_ name like that…it was enough to make him angry.

…

"I assume you were all listening."

Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco looked up from the table they all sat around at Dr. Wells. Harrison, feeling once more out of place, hovered away from them. He was leaning up against the door to Cisco's office.

Dr. Wells rolled forward and continued, "Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been completely honest with you. With any of you." Wells clasped his hands together and rested them behind his head before lowering them with a sigh. "The accelerator. Hartley warned me that there was indeed a chance that the particle accelerator could explode. His data did not show one hundred percent certainty. Just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward…that…everything we could learn, everything that we could achieve, that all of _that_ …simply outweighed that risk. I'm sorry."

Caitlin stood.

"The next time you choose to put our lives, and the lives of people we love, at risk—give us a heads up," and she stormed out of the room.

Cisco's eyebrows were lowered over his eyes, scrunching at his nose. He looked torn between feeling confused and angry. Shaking his head, he too stalked out. Barry looked gravely serious as he said, "After the explosion, when everyone else left you, Caitlin and Cisco stood by you. I think you owe them more than an apology."

"They might get more than that, what with Hartley so intent on sending me into the next world."

"Wha—" Barry looked righteously indignant and confused. "That wouldn't make it right with them! You broke their trust. _Our_ trust." He grabbed his sweater and left as well.

Dr. Wells remained sitting there, his jaw working furiously. Harrison got up from where he was leaning against the wall, not sure of what to say. Ashamed of what he knew he would do, yet somehow understanding the man who did it….

He leaned against the desk across from his doppelganger.

"That was a mess, wasn't it?" he asked.

Perhaps sensing a slew of questions he needn't answer, the elder Dr. Wells turned his chair around and, finally, he too left.

…

Harrison sat, idly twisting a wrench, screwing in a bolt into the contraption that sat by the treadmill. Across the room, Cisco had Hartley's gloves sitting on a stand, piddling around with them. As Caitlin walked into the room, both men looked up from their work.

"Where's Doctor Wells?" she asked.

"I don't know," Cisco replied absentmindedly. Then he sat up. "Barry was right. Hartley was using sonic resonance. The intensity regulator's measuring decibels. But you know what's weird? He had it set to the lowest setting."

"What?" both Caitlin and Harrison asked, the latter looking up and setting his wrench down.

"He could have completely destroyed his father's building with one blow if he wanted to," Cisco continued. Harrison got to his feet and walked over.

"So why not just do it and leave?" Caitlin asked. "I mean, why stick around and run the risk of getting caught?"

Cisco's eyes widened in realization and he muttered, "Unless he wanted to get caught."

He got up and ran into the cortex. Harrison followed after, skidding to a halt and looking at the surveillance of Hartley's cell. It was empty other than shattered glass from the door that had housed him. Cisco hit a button. An alarm started going off and he said over the inter-com system, "Dr. Wells. There's been a pipeline breach." He pointed at Caitlin with a, "stay here," and prepared to run off.

Harrison grabbed him by the elbow and apparated with him directly to the pipeline instead. Cisco bent over double, coughing and gasping.

"That's horrible!" he exclaimed. "How do you do that every day?"

"You get used to it," Harrison shrugged. The two of them glanced around. The door to the pipeline was still sealed. "Does he know how to open the door?"

Cisco nodded. Harrison nodded and raised his hands in defense, waiting for the door to open. Suddenly, the door blasted into smithereens and the two of them were buffeted back. Cisco was knocked out while Harrison, being a wizard with a partly indestructible physique, attempted to sit up. Hartley emerged from the pipeline, staggering. Seeing the wizard try to sit up, he stopped in surprise.

"Harrison!" he exclaimed, putting a foot out and stopping the scientist from rising. "You should have seen this move coming. Tell me, am I still your guy?"

And with that, he punched him in the face, knocking him out. From there, he went to the cortex, knocking Caitlin out on his way. He ran and grabbed his gloves. Then he dashed over to the computer, pulling something out of the gloves and plugging it in. It immediately began downloading information.

Meanwhile, Barry answered his phone.

"What's up?"

" _Hartley has escaped, he's loose in the facility_ ," Wells informed him.

Barry dashed out to STAR Labs. Inside, Hartley cornered Wells, who was lying face down on the floor, attempting to prop himself up. Hartley flexed his gloved fingers. For the second time that night, the young man stopped.

"But I just saw—" he broke off.

"Me in the pipeline?" Wells asked. "Did you not account for that?"

…

"Hey, are you okay?" Barry asked, helping Caitlin to her feet.

"Yeah," she said shortly. "But Harrison—Cisco—Dr. Wells!"

Barry sped off, coming to a halt in front of the elevator where Dr. Wells sat in his wheelchair.

"He's gone," Wells informed him grimly.

…

"Welcome back, Mr. Ramon," Barry said.

Cisco blinked with a groan. His vision cleared and he could see both Barry and Harrison looking at him.

"Hey, why weren't you knocked out?" Cisco asked.

"I was," Harrison replied, "but as a metahuman with _telekinesis abilities_ , I have a power that gives me the ability to withstand more trauma than the average person."

Cisco groaned again, rubbing his temple.

"Oh, man," he grumbled. He attempted to sit up. "Caitlin—?"

"She's all right, man," Barry assured him.

"You need to rest, you have a concussion," Caitlin said, walking up.

"And you'll probably be experiencing some difficulty of hearing," Harrison said. His own ears felt like there was a bubble around them, blocking out half of the sound around him. His own voice felt loud to him—he could hear it reverberating in his head as he spoke.

"Please tell me you got him," Cisco muttered.

Barry shook his head.

"I guess the attack on his family's company was a fake-out so we'd take him in."

"And give him direct access to STAR Labs," Caitlin finished.

"But why?" Harrison asked.

Barry was shaking his head.

"I should have known he was up to something," Cisco muttered, rubbing his neck. "This is my fault."

"Hey man, this is on me too," Barry argued. "I should have left before—"

"This is no one's fault but mine," Dr. Wells interrupted from the doorway. "I earned the blame. I'm not interested in sharing it. Hartley doesn't think I've paid for my crimes. He's right. He won't stop until I do."

"Where are you going?" Barry asked as he turned away.

"To earn back your trust."

…

Harrison looked at the machine he, Cisco, and his doppelganger had spent months building and theorizing.

"It's almost done," Cisco said, looking at it.

"I know," Harrison muttered, looking at it.

In the cortex, a press conference was playing, Dr. Wells' voice drifting in through the doorway.

"— _warned that the particle accelerator might fail…_ "

Cisco turned it off, muttering, "It's not anything we haven't already heard." He sat back down beside Harrison. "Do you—could you see yourself doing something that puts the entire city at risk?"

"I don't know," Harrison said hesitantly. "After seeing what I have, I want to change my plans for STAR Labs—"

"I'm sensing a 'but' in there."

Harrison nodded, saying, " _But_ my doppelganger says I can't change the past. That no matter what I do different, time will replace it with something more terrible. Do you think that's true?"

"I'm not Dr. Wells," Cisco replied. "I haven't done extensive studies into all the sciences. I have no idea. But I think that if you feel that saving people from the particle accelerator blast is right—then it probably is."

Harrison sighed, looking down. Sitting by a machine that could potentially send him home, Harrison didn't want to think that he might not even be from the past. The thought had passed through his mind, but this was the only plan they had. He was afraid of telling the others his doubts for fear he would never find his way home again.

…

"Has Hartley made contact yet?" Wells asked.

"What makes you so sure he will?" Caitlin asked curiously.

"Because he's _Hartley_ , and he'll wanna have the last word."

Cisco walked in the room.

"Cisco, you should be resting," Barry called.

"The answer to why Hartley fooled us into catching him is in here, and I'm going to find it," he muttered.

Wells watched him disappear into the next room.

"You know you don't have to prove yourself," he said.

"Not true," Cisco muttered.

"You know why I hired you?"

"You said you saw something in me?"

"You and Hartley are both brilliant," Wells explained. "The difference is, while Hartley's personality detracted from the atmosphere, yours just…added to it. You heart, warmth, your humor. There's no chosen one, Cisco. Just us."

Lights flashed and sparked overhead.

"What's that?" Caitlin asked.

" _Nice gambit, Harrison, but this isn't over_ ," came Rathaway's voice. " _The city already hated you. You don't think I noticed that press conference was a pathetic bishop sacrifice? No, no, no, I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, and the Flash."_

"You don't want to play for those kind of stakes with me, Hartley," Wells growled.

" _Actually, I really do. What do you say? One last game of chess?"_

"I'm sure you already have a move in mind?"

" _You're right, and I'm already at the board. So why don't you move your precious scarlet knight while I take out a few pawns?"_

Dr. Wells looked over at Barry who was looking at him with a determined gaze. There was a flash and Barry was wearing his super-suit. He paced in circles, asking, "All right, Cisco, where do I go?"

"I'm trying to trace the call," Cisco explained. "He could be sending these messages from anywhere."

"Cisco," Wells ordered, "look up for seismic activity. If Hartley's using sonic blasts, they could be causing tremors."

Cisco pulled up the program he had created earlier and watched it calculate, pinpointing different locations until one blinked red.

"Got it," he said.

Barry looked over his shoulder.

"The Keystone Cleveland Dam."

With that, he was gone. Harrison stood, waving his hand over his front. His clothes morphed, turning black. He pulled up his hood. As he reappeared on the bridge, he heard Wells say, " _You need to disarm him immediately. He is a master at hiding his true endgame._ "

Hartley advanced towards them, blasting away the cars that were behind them. Barry watched them with a panicked look before running off to grab people from inside the cars. Meanwhile, Harrison lifted the people out of the remaining cars and banished them to the far end of the bridge.

"Aha!" Cisco cried. His face fell. "Uh, oh."

"What 'uh oh'?"

"I found out what Hartley stole. He has all the data on Barry's molecular scans."

"Why would he take those?" Caitlin asked.

Wells nearly gasped.

"He could get Barry's frequency. _Barry you've got to get out of there now. Let Harrison handle this._ "

Harrison looked up to see Barry running forward and ripping the gloves off of Hartley's hands.

"I can't believe Harrison replaced me with _you_ , a total moron," Hartley sneered. "Looks like I caught you twice with the same move."

Barry began to collapse, groaning and vibrating

"I got the idea from watching you and Harrison chitchat. To use your suit's own speakers to kill you. That feeling? That's your organs shearing apart." Panicking, Harrison looked at the gloves. He rubbed his hands together. "And you activated the frequency when you disarmed me."

Harrison walked forward throwing out his hands. The air around the gloves rippled and was almost tangible. Hartley stopped. "What are you doing?"

Harrison clenched his fingers.

"Stop!"

As sparks began to emit from the gloves and Barry stopped vibrating, Harrison staggered back, a mental image of a sixteen year old asking, " _What are you doing?"_ as he stabbed something smooth and white into a black diary.

Hartley picked up the gloves, trying to salvage them and left out a yell as they fried holes into his hands. In agony, he curled up.

" _You all right_?" came a voice over the com-system.

Barry rolled over and spat blood out of his mouth, rasping, "Yeah." He staggered to his feet and clapped Harrison on the shoulder. "Thanks for saving me."

Harrison blinked away the disoriented feeling, mumbling, "Yeah. No problem."

…

 _Harrison looked up from the large book he had in his lap as he sat in a window of the large public library in Starling City. His friend, Mick, walked over and looked at it, toting a super-hero comic book._

" _What are you reading?" Mick asked._

 _Harrison showed him the cover of the book._

" _This guy is so cool," he gushed, pointing to a black and white picture of a young man with dark hair. "James Watson. Did you know that he discovered DNA? He and his partner, Francis Crick, did an experimented that showed DNA's double helix. He took information people already knew, and pushed it to new discoveries!"_

 _Mick laughed, "What even is a double helix?" Harrison opened his mouth to explain, but his friend continued, "Are you aspiring to be some sort of inventor or discover new things?"_

" _It would be cool," Harrison sighed. "But I'm just not James Watson. I don't know if I can discover something else if everything's already discovered."_

" _Yeah," Mick agreed. He sat down on the windowsill and opened up his comic book, flicking through it and admiring all of the strong heroes that saved the day._

…

"I think after all that's just happened," Cisco said to Harrison, "we can say that it's time to send you home."

Harrison nodded.

"So how does this work?" he asked.

While checking and making sure the horizontal metal tube was properly plugged into the treadmill, Cisco replied, "Barry is going to run on this treadmill, which will take the energy his speed puts off, harnessing it and sending it into this." He patted the cylinder. "The spires will spin and once they've reached terminal speed it should create a wormhole. To you, it will be like walking through a door into your past."

"What about getting to the right time?" Harrison asked. "How do I know I won't overshoot?"

"Just so long as you are thinking of where you want to go, you should get there," Dr. Wells explained.

"All right," Harrison nodded. "Let's do this."

Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin left the room, standing on the other side of the glass. Barry stepped up onto the treadmill while Harrison walked into the cylinder, pulling a round door closed behind him.

"Ready?" Barry asked him.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he called.

Then Barry began running. Yellow lightning crackled behind him, moving off of his body onto the floor of the treadmill. It seemed to follow the belt, rolling under the treadmill and then disappearing into the wires. The spires began to spin, making a _vrarp, vrarp, vrarp_ sound. Something blue flickered at the end of the walkway, looking like a glowing doorway. Barry ran faster. The doorway flickered again. The meter on the treadmill marked Mach 2. The blue flickered on and off, more consistently now. Mach 3. It was the fastest Barry had ever run. Harrison looked at the red meter than was inside the capsule.

His heart thudded in his ribcage. The doorway became stable, warping at his every movement. As he was about to touch it, it flickered one last time and gave out.

Barry continued running for another few seconds. Then, he began to slow. The lightning died away and he came to a halt. He doubled over, panting.

"That's as much as I can do in one day," Barry wheezed, sitting on the treadmill.

"It wasn't enough," Cisco breathed.

…

"I searched the house," Eddie said, looking at Joe steadily. "There was nothing there." Joe slumped, looking stumped. "Are you sure you want to do this? Investigate Wells?"

Suddenly the stumped look was replaced with a resolute one. Joe squared his shoulders, narrowed his eyes, and replied, "Yes. I do."

* * *

 **By the way I would like to apologize if any of you are overly confused by the story. Most of what makes it so convoluted, jumping all around the many multiverses and all that, is a combination of me trying to follow the story of the Flash while also fitting in Harrison's backstory and the backstory of my main villain. Some parts, like what Earth Harrison is from, and little details like that have been _purposely_ left a mystery because they are what the story is about. I'm not going to just spoil that within the first half of the story. So, with this in mind, please bear with my story. By the end, you will hopefully no longer be confused. If you are...uh...I guess I need to work on something...**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Flash, nor do I own Harry Potter**

 **Someone mentioned once about Harrison's problem with his memory. Yeah, sometimes I feel sorry for him because I messed up his memory so bad...**

 **Addressing the previous chapter and Harrison's being torn between thinking that he's from the past or from an alternate dimension, science is all about failure! Nothing would ever be invented if people aren't willing to fail again and again-which they do. So, with that in mind, let's continue with our story, shall we?**

* * *

 **Chapter Ten:**

"What do you mean, it's not enough?" Harrison roared, slamming the door to the capsule shut behind him. "Let's try again! We could do it at Mach 4, right?"

Barry looked up at him, his hands dangling in his lap, and shook his head as he said, "I've never run that fast. I don't think it's going to work."

Harrison shook his head, storming out of the room. He rubbed his hands on the back of his head as he went. He couldn't believe it hadn't worked. What was more, he _was not_ going to accept that their plan was not going to work. As he passed Cisco in the doorway, the long-haired young man stopped him.

"Hey, man," he said, "we're gonna get you home. Don't worry."

Harrison nodded, pulling away from his friend and heading towards his room. Once there, he pulled his wand out of his shirt and replaced it in the drawer he had been storing it in, casting a disillusionment charm on it. Then, with a sigh he flopped onto his bed, resuming his usual staring contest with the ceiling. They had been so close. He had gotten his hopes up—actually _believed_ he was going to go home. Right then and there, Harrison decided to never get his hopes up again.

…

January passed entirely with nothing to distract Harrison from their most recent failure. The entire month was spent in limbo as none of them attempted to figure out what went wrong. Only petty crimes kept them moving. Most of the time it was something simple, so only one of them would help out the CCPD at a time.

During moments when there were no bad-guys to take out, Cisco would sit at his computer, looking through different cases that could potentially be metahuman related—ones that weren't necessarily proven. One of these cases was instances of things disappearing from people—Cisco had discovered it one day searching for the Reverse Flash. He called the perpetrator "The Turtle". Why was beyond Harrison—he and Caitlin were still doubtful the man existed.

In February, things got a little more interesting. A teleporting metahuman broke her boyfriend out of prison, which led to the both of them causing mayhem in the city until he was shot and she was captured. At the same time, Hartley escaped, tricking Cisco into letting him go.

"Hold up," Harrison had said, giving Cisco a level stare. "How did Hartley escape from the pipeline?"

"I let him out," he replied, looking physically pained to say so.

" _Why_?" Harrison asked.

Cisco looked down.

"Cisco," Dr. Wells, who sat in his wheelchair beside Harrison, admonished.

"He told me he knew where Ronnie was," Cisco finally said, taking a deep breath. "He took me to CCPD, showed me a video of Martin Stein the day the particle accelerator blew—Ronnie was _in_ the wave of dark matter. It fused them using the FIRESTORM matrix."

As February drew to a close, the local crime rate rose.

On one day near the end of the month, Harrison and Cisco sat together in the cortex, watching the monitors. A radio played to their right, relaying the police scanners. The gadget guy was leaning back in his chair, slurping a soda while Harrison was bouncing a pen in his hand using his magic.

"What all can your powers _do_?" Cisco asked.

Harrison shrugged.

"A wide assortment of things, I suppose," he replied.

He began boosting the pen further and further away from his hand, and then let it fly towards the wall that held his and the Flash's suits. It stopped in midair. He jiggled it around a bit. Then he summoned it back to his hand.

"Sick," Cisco muttered, slurping on his soda once more. Suddenly something on the computer screen started blinking. "Robbery at the convenient store on Brand and Paulson."

"I'll get it," Harrison muttered. "Seeing as Barry is on a date."

He disappeared with a crack and then reappeared in his chair, sitting once more. He held out his hand, waving his fingers a little. "Pay up," the Phantom told Cisco. "It wasn't a little old lady."

Cisco pouted, "But it's _always_ little old ladies." Harrison's fingers wiggled once more. Cisco sighed and slapped five dollars into his hand. There was a moment of silence and then Cisco popped up. "Bet you five dollars the next one is a jumper."

Harrison rolled his eyes.

Just a few minutes later, the phone rang. The younger Wells answered the phone, saying, "STAR Labs, how may I be of assistance?"

Barry's voice. Answered, " _Joe just called. We've got a jumper on 52_ _nd_ _and Wade."_

"Why doesn't he just call us?"

" _I don't know. Can you handle it?"_

"Yeah. Sure," Harrison sighed.

He stood again, slapped the five dollars down again in front of Cisco and then disappeared. He regained his bearings, looking up at a tall building on the street Barry had told him. There was a spotlight showing on the top of the building, silhouetting a small figure at the top.

"Please!" Eddie called through a megaphone from beside him. "You have everything to live for!"

"No, I don't!" the jumper cried.

Harrison apparated to the top of the building, grabbing the man and taking him down to Eddie. The man looked at him with trepidation. "Will you let me go back up there?" He asked.

"Uh, no," Eddie replied with a smile, steering the man away.

Back at STAR Labs, Cisco grinned and said, "Give me some," raising his hand. Harrison high fives him and sat down on his chair with a plop. "Great job."

…

Harrison looked up at the great screen in the cortex, which was playing the news.

"… _there were several unsubstantiated reports of the so-called Burning Man_ …"

"What's going on?"

Harrison jumped, turning around to see his doppelgänger sitting in his wheelchair in the doorway. In his surprise, he saw a mental image of the older Wells leaning forward and whispering, " _So tell me. Who are you?_ Really?" The younger shook his head and muttered, "Some guy named Quale was killed by…well, Martin Stein."

Dr. Wells rolled forward in his wheelchair, his lips pressed firmly together as he obviously was thinking hard. His hand drifted up to his chin.

"This is interesting…" he muttered, almost to himself.

Harrison turned at the sound of voices—Barry and Caitlin were emerging from the elevator.

"Where's Cisco?" Harrison asked Caitlin as they passed.

"He said he had to help a friend with something," Caitlin replied.

"Well," Dr. wells muttered, turning to the three of them. "It seems that leaving Ronnie to roam free is no longer an option."

"He's not even Ronnie anymore. He's Professor Stein walking around in Ronnie's body," Caitlin muttered, looking at one of the many screens that now displayed news and blog entries on the Burning Man. "Like a vampire."

"Is there any reason why Steins brain is in control of Ronnie's body, and not the other way around?" Barry asked.

"Simple Darwinism I suspect," Dr. Wells replied.

Harrison nodded, adding, "A bend new organism will select the strongest parts of itself in order to survive—"

"Survival of the fittest—" his doppelgänger interrupted.

"So, in this case, Ronnie's body and Stein's mind."

"Any event," the elder Wells continued, rolling forward, "he badly hurt an innocent man and we have hunted metahumans for less. Caitlin, we need to know that you're on board with what needs to be done here."

"How do we find him?"

"Quentin Quale, the scientist that Ronnie attacked, was a former colleague of Martin Stein. If Martin is indeed in control of Ronnie's body, he may be trying to figure out exactly what is happening to him,"

"What do we know about him?" Barry asked. "I mean, I don't even know what he looks like."

Dr. Wells pecked on something and a picture popped up on the screens in the room.

"Martin Stein," he elaborated.

Harrison looked at the picture with interest. Barry peered at it as well, looking shocked, before he said, "I've seen him before…On the train the day the particle accelerator exploded…" He looked shaken.

…

Harrison once again cursed the fact that he owned a face that also belonged to a very prominent and paralyzed man. Cisco was still out "helping a friend", whatever that meant, and the other three were interrogating Stein's wife. This left Harrison alone in the facility.

Harrison hated feeling useless. He always had.

As a feeling of helplessness engulfed him, drowning out all else, a voice filled his ears.

"— _And they're quite right. You're too young."_

 _A face swam in front of him. He couldn't quite make out the features other than the flyaway, red hair. As he looked up, the same feeling of helplessness filled him. With it came anger from the lack of news, the hurt that his friends had been together without him, the fury at finding out he was being followed and not told about it._

Followed?

Harrison shook his head like a dog shaking droplets of water from its ears. He didn't think often of the strange feelings he experienced, voices he heard, and fuzzy images that attempted to force their way into his mind. He didn't usually have time to. The young man would think he was going crazy, but it didn't feel like he was. Instead, it felt as though there was another life that was trying to seep into Harrison's mind—bit by bit, no matter how clear the bits were. He had been experiencing this ever since he had shown up in STAR Labs. Now that he was alone and otherwise thoughtless, he couldn't help but wonder what these were from? Another mind trying to build a psychic link? As he brooded on this, another voice popped into his head—

" _So tell me. Who are you?_ Really?"

" _Harrison_!" Harrison jerked upright in surprise, breaking out of his stupor. He looked around wildly before spotting Caitlin. She smiled. "I've been calling you for the past minute."

"Oh," he replied rubbing the back of his head.

"We just got back from Stein's house," she continued. "Dr. Wells wants us to do a stakeout. He thinks that Stein might show up again."

"Am I going as Wells, or Midnight Phantom?" Harrison asked. He paused. "Now, _that_ is a sentence that would sound weird out of context."

"Wells," Caitlin replied. "If anything happens, _then_ you'll put on the suit before you run around."

"Sounds good to me," he replied. With a wave of his hand, his suit flew off the mannequin in the wall and draped itself over his arm like a black, velvety coat.

"Let's go," Caitlin muttered.

…

"Want some of my fries?" Harrison asked, shoving a burger in his mouth.

"No thanks," Caitlin replied. "I guess you've always loved a Big Belly Burger, then."

"Why do you say that?" Harrison smacked, helping himself to some fries.

"Oh, well," Caitlin started, "Dr. Wells—the _older_ Dr. Wells, I mean, loves Big Belly Burgers. I'm pretty sure it's the only fast food I've ever seen him eat."

"Well it's nice to know that even if I have to watch what I eat when I'm older, I can still enjoy a Big Belly Burger."

As if to demonstrate his happiness, he took an extra big bite out of his burger. Caitlin laughed. Her smile slowly fell as she looked out the window at the house they were watching. Then, she asked, "Why do you think he would come back here?"

"This is his home, I guess," Harrison replied. "Not the house, I mean. His wife. She's his home. And we all want to go home again."

"Do you miss it?"

"I certainly miss Tess," he replied. Caitlin stared at him. "My girlfriend?"

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend."

Harrison looked down. "I still don't know what happened to her. Why she isn't here now. I don't know if I want to. What about Ronnie, your fiancée? Do you miss him?"

"Of course I do," Caitlin replied, looking sad. "Every day he was gone felt like a dull ache. I didn't think it could get any worse. But now? I'd rather believe that he's still dead than know he's become this."

There was the sound of whooshing air above them. Harrison and Caitlin both fell silent, looking out the window of the van just in time to see a flash of fire. Then, Ronnie—Stein—disappeared behind the house.

"That would be my cue," Harrison muttered, he waved his hand and he was wearing his super suit. He pulled up the mask and got out of the van. "Wait here."

He closed the door behind him and ran to the house.

"Professor Stein!" he called once he caught glimpse of Ronnie's body walking along the sidewalk. The man in question stopped and looked at him warily. "Hey, I'm not here to hurt you. And I don't want you to hurt anyone else. We just want to help you."

Stein's head and hands burst into flames. He stared at him for a minute, and then threw a fireball at the Phantom. Harrison apparated away. Then, he grabbed Stein from behind and attempted to throw him into a tree. However, before he let go, the Burning Man shot into the air. Terrified, as they flew around, Harrison fumbled for his phone and held it up to one ear.

"Barry, I need your help!"

" _I'm kind of in the middle of a date, man._ "

"I'm currently roughly three hundred feet above ground. I know I'm partly indestructible, but I'm not _that_ indestructible!"

" _I'm coming._ "

Harrison breathed a sigh of relief. He looked down and saw Caitlin driving the van below him. Stein dipped down slightly, and then let him go. Harrison let out a yell as he began to fall, holding his arms out in front of him in the hopes that he could create a cushion to land on. Then, there was a streak of yellow and he found himself standing on the ground as Caitlin slammed on the breaks in order not to hit him and the red-clad Barry beside him.

The Burning Man landed just before them, readying himself to throw another ball of flame. Harrison put out his hands in defense and Barry braced himself to run, but before anything could happen Caitlin had run between them, shouting, "No!"

Stein hesitated. Perhaps Ronnie was still in there somewhere. Then, he recovered and flew away. Harrison breathed in heavily.

"Well that was _thrilling_."

…

"How'd you get him to come in?" Harrison asked curiously, looking at the newly shaven and trimmed Martin Stein—Ronnie Raymond.

"His wife convinced him to," Barry replied. He turned to Dr. Wells. "So what now?"

"Stein clearly thinks he can separate himself from Ronnie's body using nuclear fission."

"What do you think?" Caitlin asked.

"What do _I_ think?" Wells repeated. His breathed hitched. "Is it possible? Theoretically. Splitting an atom and splitting a man are two very different things."

Caitlin nodded and then looked over toward Stein. Harrison turned and looked as well to see that he had now entered the room.

"I don't suppose it's necessary to point out that you're all staring?" Stein asked.

Caitlin immediately looked down at the ground.

"Our apologies," Dr. Wells said, still looking at him with a steady gaze.

"It is remarkable," Stein added, walking towards them. "I feel clearer than I have since the accident. What did you give me?"

"A cocktail of antipsychotics, depressants, mood stabilizers," Wells replied.

"The same formula used to treat dissociative identity disorder," Stein remarked. He looked at Caitlin. "I assume this was your idea?"

She nodded, still not quite meeting his eyes.

"Very clever, Cait."

"Don't call me that. Please."

"I apologize."

She finally met his gaze and said haltingly, "We'd like to run some tests on you, if you don't mind."

"Of course, Dr. Snow."

…

Harrison wasn't really paying attention to what Stein and Caitlin were saying, only picking up the portion where Stein was talking about having memories that were not his own. He looked up when Caitlin was called into the room they were in to talk.

"Ronnie's body is rejecting Stein's atoms like a host rejecting parasite," Dr. Wells informed them, his hands clasped as he leaned forward and looked at a computer screen that showed two different atoms. "The resulting instability is causing an exothermic reaction. If his temperature continues to rise at this rate, it'll set off a chain reaction."

"He could go nuclear," Harrison breathed in realization.

They looked up to see Cisco enter the room, shutting the door behind him.

"That's not freaky at all," he commented, looking genuinely weirded out from his previous conversation with Stein.

"It seems Ronnie's fight with the Flash has exacerbated the FIRESTORM matrix," Dr. Wells commented. "It's unstable, exponentially increasing the rate of fission in his body."

"How long does he have?"

"If his temperature continues to rise at this rate—no more than a couple of hours."

…

Harrison walked into the empty cortex to see Cisco running some sort of scan. It appeared to be some sort of DNA match. Sitting beside the long-haired young man, Harrison asked, "Helping out the CCPD?"

Cisco jumped. He hit a key on the keyboard and the scan disappeared. Then, he slumped in his seat, attempting to look natural, and said, "I guess you could put it that way."

Harrison raised his eyebrows at Cisco skeptically.

Cisco sighed and looked down, muttering, "Can I…talk to you about something?"

"Shoot," Harrison replied, leaning back in his own chair.

"Joe has been getting me to help look into the case of Nora Allen's murder."

"Barry's mom?" Harrison asked.

Cisco nodded, "We pulled some blood samples off of the wall—the new owner of the house papered over them instead of removing them. Only—Joe wants me to run the samples against you."

" _Me._ "

Cisco looked down with a guilty expression. Then, he said, "Well, not _you,_ really. The older you."

Harrison looked away. He couldn't bring himself to be angry with Joe—and especially not Cisco, who looked _very_ guilty. He still suspected something off about his older self. If Dr. Wells made _him_ uneasy, then there was definitely something wrong. Was it even possible to make yourself uneasy?

"I'm not angry," he finally said.

Cisco breathed a sigh of relief.

…

"Looking for the professor?" Cisco asked, walking into the room. "Yeah, he's gone."

"Where?" Barry asked.

Caitlin walked over to the computer, pulling open the tracker Barry had put on Stein I order to find him to bring him in in the first place. Meanwhile Cisco, Harrison, and his doppelgänger were sitting around a table working on something that would theoretically separate Stein and Ronnie.

"He's in the Badlands," she said. "The middle of nowhere, thirty miles outside of Central City."

"Minimum safe distance," Cisco clarified.

"He's sacrificing himself," Wells commented.

"How much time does he have left?" Barry asked.

Cisco checked the clock.

"Twelve minutes."

"And," Wells paused, "we're done."

Harrison picked up the device and stood, walking forward.

"What is it?" Barry asked.

"A quantum splicer," Harrison replied.

Caitlin snatched it out of his hands.

"What are you doing?" he asked,

"I'm going with you," she replied, putting on her coat.

"No you're not! It's too dangerous."

"You can disappear and reappear in a single instant. I think it's going to be fine."

Harrison sighed, "All right, there's no time to argue."

He grabbed Caitlin by the elbow and disapparated. Once they had disappeared, an alarm went off on the computer. Barry watched Cisco check the computer.

"What was that?" Wells asked, rolling towards him.

"Comm system's on the fritz," he replied. "I'll be right back."

He walked out into the hallway and quietly ran out of earshot. There, he pulled out his phone and called Joe. When the detective picked up, he said, "All right I'm not proud of it, but I ran the tests. One was unidentified and the other had a match."

" _Cisco, you're hesitating. Was it Wells?"_

"No it wasn't Wells, I already told you he has nothing to do with this. But I know whose blood it is. It's Barry's."

" _We already know Barry was there that night."_

"No, you don't understand," Cisco continued. "The sample had high levels of P-16. That's a protein that we build up as we get older. These levels were way too high to belong to an eleven-year-old. This sample was from Barry as an adult."

…

By sheer determination, she did not react badly to the experience of apparition as most did. Instead she walked toward the figure that stood alone in the center of the unpopulated valley. At the sound of the crack, Stein turned to face them. He lowered the gun he held in his hand.

"What are you doing here? Get her out of here!" he cried.

"Please!" Caitlin pleaded. "Look, Ronnie's still in there somewhere!"

"All those people," Stein breathed. "Clarissa. I won't let them die! it's better that I end this now."

He raised the gun up to his head again.

"We can separate you," Harrison told him, rushing forward. "We can stop the explosion."

"How?" Stein asked, lowering the gun once more.

"A quantum slicer," Caitlin replied. "It's a fission device designed to pump your atoms with the same amount of energy as they experienced in the particle accelerator explosion. It should be enough to separate you. Please, professor, you have nothing left to lose." She put the quantum splicer on his chest. "Ronnie, if you're in there, I love you."

Stein, kissed her, replying, "That was from him."

Then he stepped back and stood up straight as she activated the quantum splicer. She stepped back and stood by Harrison, grabbing his arm as his arms caught fire, followed by his head. When his entire body was in flames, she exclaimed, "It's not working!"

"Get out of there!" Wells shouted over the coms.

Caitlin was reaching out with one hand towards Stein, her other still holding Harrison's elbow. Without more prompt, Harrison apparated to the closest safe distance. In the distance, there was a rumble and a mushroom cloud bloomed up from the earth.

" _No_!" she screamed.

Harrison hugged her awkwardly as tears started pouring.

* * *

 **So we have Stein now! I love Stein :). Someone asked about Wells knowing about Harrison's powers...um, I can't really say much if you people haven't finished Season One cuz spoilers...**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Flash**

 **So I've gotten sick of updating sporadically. I'll probably be posting as many chapters as possible for a little while. Did I mention that I've finished writing this story?**

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven:**

Harrison and Caitlin gasped for breath as ash rained down on their heads. Tears were still flowing down Caitlin's face. Harrison ran a hand down his face.

" _Harrison. Are you two all right?_ "

The young man activated his coms and replied, "Yeah, we're fine."

"Oh, God," Caitlin breathed. "The nuclear explosion. There's no telling how much radiation we were exposed to."

Cisco pulled up the monitor system of Harrison's suit that Caitlin had insisted they install.

" _This can't be right,_ " he muttered. " _The Geiger count in the suit is reading less than one millirad._ "

"But that's normal," Harrison remarked. He looked at Caitlin. "Let's go."

…

Barry joined them at the sight of the explosion to investigate. The three of them stepped into the smoking crater, unable to fully see what had happened.

" _Did it work?_ " Cisco asked. " _Are they separated?_ "

"I don't know," Barry replied.

As they walked forward, the smoke cleared slightly. They caught a glimpse of a man lying on his back in a pile of black dirt. His clothes were torn to tatters and he groaned slightly, trying to clear his head. Caitlin stepped forward, asking, "Ronnie?"

His eyes blinked open and he let out a groan.

"Tell me your name," she whispered.

"Ronnie Raymond," he replied, his face breaking out into a grin.

The doctor breathed out a sigh of relief, throwing herself into a hug.

A voice interrupted their reunion and the four turned to see Stein walking towards them and saying, "Excuse me, but obviously I need a change of clothes."

"Nice to see you in the flesh again, Professor Stein," Barry smiled.

…

More often than not was the day that Transmutation took control, shoving Albert to the back of their shared mind. Albert would find himself waking up on Creevey's couch, hours or even entire days since the last time he had been conscious. According to Creevey, during the hours he could not remember, he had gone out and virtually disappeared.

But what he did not know was that during the time that Transmutation was in control, he was out finding out as much as he could about Harry Potter. From what he gathered, Harry Potter was a local celebrity. Not unlike a certain person he knew from his world. Yes, Transmutation had ascertained that he was in an entirely different world from the one he knew. He spent as much time trying to figure that out as well as the ordeal with Potter.

Potter, he learned, had defeated a man called "Lord Voldemort". He had survived something known as the Killing Curse twice—a feat that was apparently previously impossible. Another thing Transmutation had learned was the fact that he had somehow stumbled across a secret cult of people called "witches" and "wizards" with ranging abilities that were all the same. Meaning, each person could do a wide variety of tasks with their powers, but they had roughly the same abilities as everyone else in the cult.

Perhaps they were metahumans.

That was what he, Transmutation, was classified as. He knew that his powers to control the elements around him and their states of matter classified him to be one of the very people the Flash and his little team hunted down. He also knew that he only had those powers when he, _Transmutation_ , and not Albert was in control.

He still had yet to figure out why Harry Potter looked just like Harrison Wells—the man himself who had created Transmutation. Transmutation did not hate the man for it. He well knew that his powers were something to be treasured—even though he still hadn't quite gotten grips on them yet. But he did want to find him. Talk to him. Perhaps he could get rid of the other— _Albert_.

He could hear the wimp in the back of his mind, panicking at losing control. Afraid of their situation. _Albert_ wanted to run, to lash out at the "wizards". Transmutation simply wanted to survive.

…

"So there are two Harrison Wells?" Ronnie asked as they returned to STAR Labs.

"Yes," Harrison replied with a nod. "My other— _older_ self is paralyzed, and I moonlight as the Midnight Phantom."

He gestured to the suit he wore.

"Time travel," Stein breathed. "Fascinating subject. I wrote at least three theses on it. Unfortunately, no scientist has yet completely cracked the code."

"Ronnie!" Cisco exclaimed, joining them and giving the younger half of FIRESTORM a high five and a hug. "I missed you so much, man. I shouldn't have locked you in there."

"Hey," Ronnie interrupted. "Don't."

He looked past Cisco at Dr. Wells, who was rolling up.

"Dr. Wells," he smiled. "Harrison told me what happened to you. I'm so sorry."

"I see they also taught you about the distinction they have made between the two of us," Wells laughed, referring to the team's insistence on calling himself _Dr. Wells_ , and his younger self Harrison _._ "And don't feel sorry. I am responsible for putting myself in this chair. _You_ , are responsible for my being alive. Thank you."

"You said you'd bring him back," Caitlin said, wrapping her arm around her fiancée, "and you did. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Dr. Wells said with his usual tight smile—though it looked warmer than usual.

"Uh, excuse me," Stein interrupted. "Are we all planning on singing 'Kumbaya' next?"

"Professor Stein, I presume?" Wells asked him.

"Harrison Wells," the older man returned. "Do you have a place that I can freshen up and get some new clothes?"

"Of course," Wells replied.

"This way," Cisco indicated, leading the professor in the proper direction.

…

"You've _never_ seen _Princess Bride_?" Cisco asked incredulously as they walked into the med-bay from the cortex.

Harrison shrugged.

As they looked up to see Caitlin and Ronnie kissing, Cisco stopped and commented, "Yup. And I was _just_ forgetting how awkward it was to walk in on you two!"

Caitlin beamed, "Well, you can get used to it again."

Harrison looked back at his older self, who was wheeling along behind them. Wells shook his head. Once Stein finally entered the room, Wells pulled out his iPad and said, "So, I did a full medical work-up on the professor, and it turns out that now that he and Ronnie are separated, they no longer possess the ability to harness nuclear energy."

Caitlin took the iPad from him and assessed the charts.

"Professor Stein," she said, "it seems you are running a little high as well. Same as Ronnie—100.6."

"Hardly a sweat, Dr. Snow," Stein replied. "And hopefully now the only thing Ronald and I have in common—"

"It's Ronnie," the young man interrupted.

Stein raised his eyebrows.

"Hey," Cisco interrupted, trying to diffuse the tension. "Are you gonna miss being able to fly."

"Maybe if I was the one holding the controllers," Ronnie muttered spitefully.

"Meaning?" Stein asked, stepping forward defensively.

"Meaning you weren't exactly the most conscientious body-mate."

"So you do not consider keeping you alive to be conscientious?" the professor asked.

"Alive? We were living under a bridge eating _garbage_ ," Ronnie retorted.

"I don't know _why_ my mind was chosen to be in control," Stein argued, "but _thank God_ it was. I could feel your fear and panic—emotions that likely would have gotten us killed in that state."

Cisco made a face, realizing he had created this situation without even meaning to. He looked over to Harrison who looked at Wells, who looked back at Cisco. Caitlin sat behind Ronnie, looking sad.

"You kept me buried down," Ronnie growled. "You kept me from _her_."

He indicated to Caitlin.

"Which is likely why she's still alive," the older man replied. Harrison thought back to the man they had found burned—an old colleague of Stein's. Wells had theorized that Stein had been trying to figure out what was happening to him. Did he try to get help from a friend and accidentally killed him? "Now I believe you and I have spent quite enough time together."

"Yeah," Ronnie muttered.

"I would like to return home to my wife."

"Mr. Allen will take you," Wells replied.

"Thank you," Stein muttered.

Ronnie sighed and rolled his eyes. Then, he turned to Caitlin and said, "I need some pizza."

"You got it," she replied.

…

Collin Creevey heard a noise in his sitting room. Used to the concept of his new friend Albert sneaking out, Colin snuck out of his room in order to catch him in action—perhaps figure out where he was going or what was wrong with him. Instead, what he found was Albert tossing and turning, grunting and groaning, in his sleep on the couch.

He was having a nightmare.

 _Albert was sitting at his desk in his home lab. Being a young man living alone in an apartment, he had one bedroom, one sitting room, one bathroom, and a kitchen. In his bedroom was crammed as many bookshelves as he could fit—science textbooks, chemistry books, biographies on Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford._

 _At the same time, he had repurposed his sitting room into a lab. There was a chemistry table in the center with test tubes and a sink. Along one wall was more book shelves and the doorway into his bedroom. The wall opposite of that held a door to the kitchen and his desk, which was covered in papers. The paper on the top of the stack showed an ink image of a transmutation circle. The wall perpendicular to the desk wall had the door to his apartment. The wall on the other side held a few windows._

 _As the ground began to shake, Albert set down his notebook that he had been scribbling in. He stood and walked over to the open window, which had a view of the dingy street below. In the distance, he could just barely make out STAR Labs. Around it was a force-field of orange glow—and explosion of some sorts—and it was expanding. Before Albert could even think of closing his window, the orange wave of dark matter flew in, throwing him back. He landed on his desk with a yell. There was a searing pain in his back the force of the wave shook the room, knocking test tubes and his nuclear samples into the floor. He slid down off of the desk onto the floor as well, unconscious._

…

"Time travel," Wells mused after hearing Barry tell all (save Caitlin who was off somewhere with her fiancée) about Joe's evidence that Barry had been in his house as an adult during his mother's murder.

"We seem to be hearing a lot of it, recently," Harrison remarked with a wry smile.

Barry looked at him.

"Well, seeing as we know Harrison's travelled to the future," Barry thought aloud, "then it would make sense that I would be able to travel to the past."

"Time travel," Joe breathed, looking out of his depth. After all, this was the first he had heard of it. He had not questioned why there were two Wells. He had simply sighed and said, _"So there are two Wells now. What's new?_ " Naturally the concept of time travel would be new to him. As if to demonstrate this, he asked, "So it is possible?"

"Oh, it's definitely possible," Wells replied, "but problematic. I mean, assuming you could create the necessary means to complete that journey, that journey would be fraught with potential pitfalls. Novikov Principle of Self-Consistency, for example—"

"Wait, the what now?" Joe asked.

"If you travel back in time to change something then you end up being the causal factor of that event," Barry explained.

Joe stared at him. You could practically hear the air whistle as the concept flew directly over Joe's head.

"Like _Terminator_ ," Cisco added, pulling a popsicle out of his mouth.

"Ah," Joe said, pointing at him.

"Or," Harrison interrupted, "is time plastic? Is it mutable? Whereby any changes to the continuum could create an alternate timeline?"

" _Back to the Future_ ," Cisco said, pointing to Joe.

"Oh," Joe replied. "Saw that one too."

"'Doc Brown!'" Wells impersonated, waving his hands for a second. "Tremendous picture."

"Right," Joe muttered. "So what's the answer?"

"I might be a clever guy, Joe, but if you're asking me to give you a theory on how to travel through time, I'm afraid I just can't do that."

"There is someone else we can talk to about this," Cisco said. "Now that he's separated from FIRESTORM—I know Professor Stein has done several theses on time travel."

Harrison and Barry looked at each other.

"Shall we both go?" Harrison asked, curious if the professor could give them advice on sending him home. Barry nodded.

…

"These are just a few of the random thoughts I've had on the subject," Stein told them excitedly, pulling a sheet off of a chalkboard that was filled to the brim with equations and formulas.

"A few?" Barry asked.

"You see, I believe that space-time is a free- flowing highway that intersects the physical world. We live in the moments between the on and off ramps. Theoretically, to travel through time one would simply need to find a way onto the highway."

"Yes, we know it's possible to travel to the future," Harrison replied. "What about the past?"

"Yes, yes," Professor Stein replied with excited tones. "My personal favorite would be Chicago World's Fair, 1893. I think Nikola Tesla and I would _wonderful_ argument. What about you two?"

Harrison looked at Barry, who said slowly, "I think that I already have." Stein stared at him. "Professor, um, fifteen years ago my mom was murdered. We just found recent evidence that I was there that night—and not as a child, but as an adult."

Stein's jaw slowly dropped.

"That must be a side-effect of your incredible speed," he whispered. "At some point in time you actually run so fast that the resulting kinetic energy build-up smashes a hole in the space-time-continuum! _Brilliant!_ "

As Barry hung his head beside him, Harrison perked up.

"So it is speed that initiates the entrance onto the highway," he exclaimed. "We had it right! Only…it has to be a speedster that does it. Someone who can create enough kinetic energy themselves to do it. That's why it didn't work before! By moving the energy to the tube, we were not letting it build up! Thank you. Come on," he tapped Barry. "Let's head back."

Barry lifted his head morosely and stood slowly.

"I'm destined to fail," he mumbled.

"No," Harrison said with a hit to Barry's chest to jerk him to the present. "You heard me—the other me—earlier. Time is theoretically mutable. You can still change things. We all can. Right?" he turned to Stein, who nodded.

The two of them followed him out of the room and were preparing on thanking him and Mrs. Stein when the older man fell forward suddenly.

"Professor!" Barry exclaimed.

"Martin, are you all right?" Mrs. Stein asked.

"I feel terrified," he gasped. "M-my heart is racing. I—I think Ronald is in trouble."

"How could you know that?" Barry asked.

"Jitters. He needs help. Go."

Both Barry and Harrison disappeared. With a _CRACK!_ Harrison reappeared in time to see a man in a military uniform standing before Ronnie outside of Jitters, surrounded by soldiers.

"What do you want?" Ronnie asked.

"FIRESTORM," the man replied.

There was a yellow streak of lightning following a red blur and the Flash began taking out the soldiers. As soon as he did so, the man across from Ronnie threw a box in the air. Out of it came hundreds of needles that spilled everywhere before flying straight towards Barry.

"Stings doesn't it?" the man asked, stepping forward. "I had that one especially developed for you. The needles are attracted to kinetic energy." Barry groaned.

Having had enough, Harrison ran forward in full Midnight Phantom regalia and lifted his hands in the air. The man followed the movement. Harrison flung him far enough away to wind him but close enough that he should survive. Then, a truck skidded to a halt before them, turning to show an open, empty cargo.

"Get in!" Caitlin cried. Lifting Barry, Harrison and Ronnie climbed into the back and they zoomed away.

…

"Okay, this may hurt," Harrison informed his patient.

Barry was lying on a bed in STAR Labs, his legs braced and his fists clenched in pain. Harrison summoned all of the fragments to him, catching him in his fist. Barry let out a yell, curled up, and then stretched back out.

"Man that was like the time I stepped on a sea urchin," Cisco muttered. Barry gave him a pained look. "Only much worse."

"Thanks for the warning," the speedster told Harrison.

"This is all my fault," Caitlin muttered. "When I was trying to find out what happened to Ronnie, Jason Rusch—the grad student who was helping Stein with FIRESTORM—said the military confiscated all their work. I should have known it was General Eiling."

"Eiling?" Harrison asked.

"A megalomaniac general who created a super monkey and is obsessed with finding new weapons to use," Cisco replied.

Barry stood. "I need to go get Professor Stein."

"No need," Ronnie said.

"Why?"

"He's already here."

They turned to see Stein in the doorway, who said, "I don't think Mr. Raymond and I are as distinctive as we had hoped."

Ten minutes later saw Stein and Ronnie sitting beside each other with head gear reading their brain waves, which displayed on the nearest screen. Caitlin surveyed the results.

"Your brain waves are all synced," she remarked. "Beta, alpha, theta, delta. The chances of that happening are next to impossible."

"Impossible's just another Tuesday for us, remember?" Barry grinned.

"Yeah, but this is some _Twilight Zone_ level stuff," Cisco replied. "And this is coming from a guy who knows that we have someone locked in our basement that can turn himself into poisonous gas."

"Really?" both Ronnie and Harrison asked at the same time.

"Dude, that was like week three," Cisco retorted. He pointed to the Midnight Phantom. "Just before you showed up."

"Look, if this Eiling is as dangerous as you say he is, I need to warn Clarissa," Stein muttered, taking off his headset and standing up.

"I promise I can get Clarissa out of the city in time, but you need to stay here," Barry said, holding up his hands in an effort to placate him.

"Yeah, he's right," Harrison said. "We can take care of her, but you would be safest here where we can watch you."

"We'll take care of you," Dr. Wells affirmed.

"Very well," Stein sighed, walking off.

…

Harrison and the others stood in the cortex, listening to Dr. Wells explained to them about how Eiling had broken in and taken Professor Stein. When he was finished, Barry stepped forward and asked, "He didn't hurt you?"

"Unfortunately I am not in the position to take on armed soldiers," Wells replied.

"Where do you think Eilin took Professor Stein?" Caitlin asked.

"I imagine some off-the-books military research facility," the scientist replied.

"We have to get him back," Barry stated.

"Easy," Wells said in a steady voice, resembling a parent calming his child. "Eiling has already demonstrated he has the weaponry to disable the Flash or worse."

"We can't let him turn Stein into a weapon," Caitlin replied. "What about Harrison? Eiling knows nothing about him."

"I'm not just sitting by while the Midnight Phantom does all the work," Barry argued. "No offense, but I'd rather taking a fighting stand."

"None taken," Harrison shrugged.

"How do we find him?" Ronnie asked.

Dr. Wells looked at Barry, who glanced at Harrison, who met eyes with Cisco, who then turned to Caitlin. They all looked at Ronnie.

"What?" Ronnie asked.

Caitlin raised her eyebrows.

…

"No abnormal brain activity. All vitals steady," Caitlin told them, looking at a screen that displayed Ronnie's health. The man himself was laying on a bed, propped up on some mats.

"You really think Ronnie was feel where Stein is?" Barry asked.

"Ronnie got dizzy when the soldiers grabbed Stein," Cisco replied.

"And Stein nearly fell over with fear when Eiling cornered Ronnie at Jitter's," Harrison added.

"I don't feel anything right now," Ronnie told them, sitting up.

"Just keep trying," Caitlin pleaded.

"Whatever this is, it doesn't have an on or off switch."

"It's possible it's just some kind of residual connection," Wells theorized. As he said so, Ronnie rubbed his eyes and blinked furiously. "You know, a temporary link to your time together." Ronnie sat up, no longer paying attention at all.

"Wait," he interrupted. "I feel something. I'm…cold."

"Cold?" Harrison asked.

"Like in a room with no heating," Ronnie replied.

"Anything else?" Barry asked.

Ronnie stared around, as though stretching out with all of his senses. Then he slumped and muttered, "No."

Then, he arched his back, grabbing his legs so tight his knuckles turned which, and let out a strangled yell.

"Don't worry, man, we got you!" Cisco exclaimed, hurrying forward to help pin Ronnie down to keep him from hurting himself.

"What's happening to him?" Barry asked.

"Nothing's happening to him," Harrison told them. "It's happening to Stein, and Ronnie is feeling his pain."

"I was wrong," Wells muttered. "The temporary connection is growing stronger."

Ronnie managed to sit up, gasping for breath.

Looking as though she was feeling his pain in her heart, Caitlin muttered, "Just try and hold on."

Ronnie still gasped for breath, looking around frantically.

"Water," he said.

Cisco handed him a glass and he slammed it against the medical table, shattering it. Cisco jumped nearly a mile, holding up his hands and shouting, "WOAH!"

"Ronnie, no!" Caitlin cried, leaping forward.

Ronnie had curled up into a call.

"Wait, Cait," Barry interrupted.

"He's cutting himself!"

"I know," he said calmly. "Let him."

She looked at him like he was crazy and looked back down to see Ronnie etching in the last E to the word " _WHERE_ ".

"Anything?" Caitlin asked, realizing he was messaging Stein.

"No," Ronnie replied, sitting up and licking his lip. "Just a hard, cold, metal surface—a pressure on and on and off…" Harrison glanced at his older self. "Tap, tap….Tap. Tap. Tap…Tap, tap, tap."

"Morse code," Harrison realized.

"I got this," Cisco said, running over and grabbing a pen and paper.

"Same thing again," Ronnie said, louder this time. "Tap, tap…Tap. Tap. Tap…Tap, tap, tap."

"Twenty-seven," Cisco read, looking at the dots and dashes he had written down.

"What does it mean?" Caitlin asked.

"Military bunkers—" Barry gasped. "Sometimes they go by numbers. Like Area 51."

"Facility 27," Cisco read after typing quickly on the computer. "—about three hundred miles away. It was shut down in 1961."

"That's where they're keeping Stein," Barry realized.

"Betcha that's where they're keeping the aliens too," Cisco muttered.

"I'm coming with you," Ronnie said, standing up.

"No, you're not!" Caitlin cried. "You can't!"

He grabbed her hand and said, "I'm connected to Stein, I have to go."

"But did you ever stop to think why you're connection with him is growing stronger? Maybe you're being drawn back together. Maybe your proximity will cause you to remerge into one."

"What happens to me if he is killed?" Ronnie asked.

Cisco turned and grabbed something. He handed it to Ronnie and said, "The quantum splicer. It was used to separate you once. Maybe now you can use it to keep you, you."

"Thanks," he breathed. "Okay, let's go."

Harrison grabbed his bicep and turned on his heel, taking Ronnie with him. They reappeared in a dark location and Barry arrived seconds later.

"This place doesn't look sketchy at all," the Flash said sarcastically.

Harrison looked at a building labelled "twenty-seven" behind a clump of trees.

"Stein is inside," Ronnie told them. "I can feel our connection growing stronger."

Harrison and Barry looked at each other warily, saying nothing.

" _Like all matter, the FIRESTORM matrix yearns to be whole_ ," Dr. Wells said over their coms. "If you two merge, we might not be able to separate you again."

Ronnie looked down, his eyebrows lowering. Then, he said, "Eiling has a gun to Stein's head. He's about to pull the trigger." Barry quickly ran away and reappeared seconds later with Professor Stein.

Stein staggered slightly and then said, " _Woah_ , I'd never thought I'd be happy to see you!"

"Yeah, likewise," Ronnie muttered.

There was the sound of tires screeching behind them. Harrison turned to see a person pop out of a tank, holding some sort of hand-held torpedo gun. He fired and out came a small missile that hurtled towards them. Barry ran and caught it in midair and it exploded, showering him in a silvery-blue substance. Instantly it started burning the suit, seeping closer to his skin.

"Run!" he shouted to the other three.

As they began to run away, Harrison heard Cisco say over the coms, " _Barry I'm receiving some serious PH levels on your suit_."

"They hit me with some sort of chemical!"

" _It's a weaponized phosphorus. Water or foam won't extinguish it."_

" _But it can't burn in a vacuum,"_ Dr. Wells said. _"Barry, run."_

As Barry began running in circles, the other three had made it to the exit where there was a blockade of soldiers. Harrison held up his hands in defense, standing in front of the other two. Behind him, Ronnie turned to Stein. "We need to merge," he said.

" _Ronnie, no_!" Caitlin cried.

"We'll be dead if we don't," he said, watching Harrison's force-field begin to cave under the gunfire. "Cait. Whatever happens I'll always love you."

He put the quantum splicer on his chest, activating it. He and Stein joined hands, catching on fire, and then they began to merge. " _Last time you bonded you rejected each other,_ " Wells said as they bonded. " _This time, accept it. Accept the change. Accept the balance."_

Harrison turned back just in time to see a flash of light. Ronnie's eyes were glowing white and only his hands burned with a steady flame. He turned and watched the Midnight Phantom's back, hitting a tank full of men at Stein's warning. Meanwhile, Harrison thrust out his hands and sent the men at the gate flying. Ronnie boosted himself up into the air, flipping over Harrison, as he caught sight of the general.

He walked forward and panted, "Eiling, this ends now."

Catching sight of something behind the general's back, Harrison ran forward. As he did so, Eiling replied, "Yes it does. For all three of you."

He tossed another box into the air.

"No!" Harrison cried, throwing out a wave of energy that met the blue one that rushed out of the box. However, it did not stop and surged into Ronnie and Stein.

"I just bombarded your body with enough ions to destabilize your matrix," Stein explained.

Ronnie let out a groan from the ground. Harrison got to his feet and stepped over to Eiling.

"Don't mess with me or my friends again," he growled, planting his hands on the man's chest and shoving. His magic crackled, sparking in the air and whipping up his hair. Eiling fell to the ground, completely knocked out. He turned back to Ronnie and helped him up, saying, "He'll be out for a while."

Ronnie laughed. Then, Barry ran up. His suit was half fried, charred and black. The Flash panted heavily and shouted, "That was a lot of running!"

Harrison grinned.

"Let's get home."

…

A week passed since the night that Colin had to shake Albert awake to keep from disturbing the neighbors—as the man was making a whole lot of racket, shouting and all. He slept soundly the entire week, not woken up once. There were a few times during the week that Albert had gone out and not returned for a few hours with no recollection of where he had been, but for the most part it passed normally.

Then, on a Friday night Colin had a terrible dream about a pair of red eyes that stared at him. He woke up, and looked up to see his bedroom door drifting shut. There was no one in the doorway. Colin laid his head back, exhausted, and stared at the ceiling. He jumped at the sound of a loud bang, breaking glass, and the ear-piercing screech of metal.

The young man flew out of his bed, falling on the floor. Panicked, he struggled free of the blankets twisted around his legs and pulled himself to his feet. He ran out of the room, down the hallway, and into his sitting room. There, he saw a scene of disaster.

Books were torn off the rickety shelf by his window, which had been broken. The curtains flew in a cold breeze and glass littered the floor. Scattered among the glass and getting whipped up slightly in the breeze were hundreds of photographs and newspaper articles. Underneath were scraps of notebook paper, covered in scribbles. Colin bent down and picked one up. Two words jumped out at him.

 _Harrison Wells_.

Wells? Colin vaguely remembered his summers spent watching a TV series called _The Flash_ before he left Hogwarts and got a job in Diagon Alley. He did not remember any details of the show any more and the plot was a bit vague to him now, but he did remember the man called Harrison Wells—the man who had created the Flash by exploding something—the particle accelerator, he finally remembered. Why was this name written on a piece of notebook paper that was taped to a newspaper article about Harry Potter?

What did it mean?

Colin glanced around. Albert was nowhere to be seen and the door to the apartment hung wide open. Colin had no idea whether the man had caused the mess, or if he had been kidnapped. Not wanted to take any chances, Colin grabbed a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. Green flames sprung up and he stuck his head in, calling, "Auror's office!"

If no one else would, Harry Potter would help him sort this out.

* * *

 **I hope jumping between Albert, Colin, and our lovely friends didn't confuse you too much. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm kinda going through Transmutation's background-it's as crucial to this plot as Harrison. And don't worry, by the end of the story you should understand most everything.**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Flash**

* * *

 **Chapter Twelve:**

" _Get back, witch!"_

" _I'm not a witch I'm your wife!"_

Harrison laughed and looked at Cisco, who was laughing as well. The two were sitting in the cortex in front of a large screen, which showed two elderly people in some sort of hut along with three men. One of which was lying on a table.

"So you've _never_ seen _Princess Bride_?" Cisco asked him again.

"Nope," Harrison replied. "I wasn't really a movie person."

" _Princess Bride_?" the elder Wells asked from the doorway as he entered the room.

"Yeah," Cisco replied, turning and looking at him.

The scientist pulled his chair to a stop beside the two young men. Then he said, "I've heard it is the most quotable movie this century."

"Then you heard right," Cisco smiled. "I could probably quote the entire thing if I tried."

"Cisco, do you not have your brother's dinner to attend?" Wells asked, taking some popcorn out of his doppelganger's container.

Harrison turned to look at his friend.

"Uh, yeah," Cisco replied. "I was gonna ask Caitlin to come with me, but then I got a much better idea."

"Which was?" Dr. Wells asked.

"To not go at all."

Wells turned from the movie and looked at the long-haired young man.

"Oh," he said slowly. "Things are not any better with your family, then?"

"Harrison's missing the movie," Cisco muttered, gesturing to the man who had turned away from the screen to watch the other two's interaction.

"Right," Wells replied.

There was a pause.

"All right," Cisco muttered. "I'm gonna be honest with you. Things have been pretty fantastic since I've not been spending time with them."

There was a beep and Cisco finally relented and paused the movie. He slid over to the nearest computer in his rolling chair and looked at it, telling them, "The silent alarm has been tripped at the Central City Morgue."

"Why would anyone want to rob a morgue?" Wells asked.

"I got it," Harrison muttered getting to his feet and transfiguring his clothes into his Midnight Phantom suit.

He apparated to the morgue and looked around. His breath hitched as he caught a glimpse of the sight of a foot lying limp on the ground just past the autopsy table. He walked around to see a dead body lying there.

"I'm too late," he told Cisco and Wells. "They didn't come in here to steal a body—they came in and killed the coroner."

Then, he heard Cisco say to Barry, " _Don't worry, man. Harrison's just called in. It's a dead body._ "

" _Harrison? Wha—?"_

" _Hey you better get moving both of you. The police should be arriving soon_."

"I'm coming back in,"Harrison said.

" _Moving?_ " Barry asked. _"Where?_ "

" _Uh, the morgue?_ " Cisco replied. _"The police are gonna need a forensics._ "

" _But I was just there…yesterday."_

" _What are you talking about? Come on, you gotta go!_ "

Harrison apparated back to the cortex, where he pulled off his hood and bent over to talk to Cisco.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked.

"I don't know," Cisco muttered. "Just Barry acting— _weird_."

"Come on," Harrison said. "Let's finish our movie."

He glanced over at his doppelganger and for the briefest of seconds caught sight of a calculating look. Then, it was gone—replaced by a smile.

"We only have just a matter of time before Barry returns with a new case for us," he said.

"Then let's get cracking," Cisco replied, rolling back over in his chair and pressing the play button.

…

"Clyde Mardon has a brother?" Caitlin asked, looking at the mugshots of men on the screen. One read " _Clyde Mardon_ " and the other read _"Mark Mardon_."

"Clyde…Mardon?" Harrison asked.

"The very first metahuman we faced," Caitlin explained.

"He had the ability to control the weather," Cisco explained. "…And was a bit of a nut-job."

At Harrison's confused look, Barry illuminated, "Claimed he was God."

"Ah," Harrison nodded in reply. "One of _those_ people."

"Mhm," Wells said, "and it seems his brother has survived the plane crash as well and the dark matter released by the explosion affects them both in—"

"Virtually the same way," Barry interrupted.

"That's right," Wells said, turning his wheelchair to look at the speedster.

"Only Mark's not like Clyde at all," Barry continued. "He can do things that even you can't imagine."

"You mean he's sort of like a—" Cisco started.

"Weather Wizard?" the speedster finished.

Cisco looked at him confused and muttered, "Yeah," taking a huge slurp of his slushy. Then, he groaned and put a hand up to his hand.

"Trigeminal headache?" both Barry and Caitlin asked at the same time.

Harrison looked at his doppelganger, whose calculating expression returned—this time Harrison _knew_ he saw it.

"Mr. Allen," Dr. Wells said. "A word please?"

"Yeah," Barry replied.

He followed the scientist into the next room. The others cleared out, talking about what to do about Mardon, but Harrison stayed behind and watched the two figure in the other room. A few minutes later, Dr. Wells rolled out of the cortex. Barry emerged after him, walking slowly over to where Harrison stood, leaning against the desk.

"Hey, what's going on with you?" Harrison asked.

"I can't tell you," Barry muttered.

Harrison raised his eyebrows and said, "You realize I'm going to know anyway?"

Barry sighed and began pacing in circles as he replied, "I—I don't know what's going on. One thing I knew, I was running back and forth trying to stop a tidal wave—"

"When was this?" Harrison asked.

"Yesterday," Barry replied, and then added, "for me. For you it was tomorrow. Anyway, next thing I knew I was running to the morgue— _again_."

"Wait, _what_?" Harrison asked, thoroughly confused.

"You called it a, uh—" Barry explained, "Temporal reversion. I somehow was running _so fast_ that I ruptured the time continuum."

"Stein was right," Harrison breathed. Barry nodded nervously, rubbing his face. He was still pacing in circles. "Did my doppelganger give you the same, whole speech about redoing every single thing you saw?"

Barry nodded.

Harrison laughed, "Good luck." At Barry's forlorn looked he added, "Look, if you need help sorting out your thoughts, I'm always here. It's not like I'm not already _living_ in my future. I don't think it can hurt to know a bit more."

Barry nodded and with that, Harrison left the room.

…

"I'm gonna break out of here. I'm gonna create a tidal wave that destroys your whole city!" Mardon cried, banging on the glass door of his containment unit.

The Flash stepped back with a smile. Harrison remembered what Barry had said earlier about the tidal wave. As Barry shut the bulkhead to the pipeline, Cisco asked, "So, I still don't understand, _how_ did you find him."

"A hunch I guess," Barry replied. He glanced between the two Wells—the only two people that truly knew what was going on.

"That's gotta be some kind of record," Caitlin said.

Cisco laughed and agreed, "Yeah. Well, there goes my excuse for bailing on my brother's birthday."

Harrison began to follow the others out as his doppelganger asked, "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

Not exactly wanting to hear the rest of the conversation where he chews out the Flash, Harrison hurried after Cisco and Caitlin.

…

Harrison and his doppelganger both watched Barry run on the treadmill. Then, the speedster stopped. He sat on the treadmill and muttered, "I don't understand. I've been running just as fast as I was for the past hour."

"Any number of things could have triggered the wormhole that allows you to repeat your day," the elder Wells speculated. "Your emotions, circumstances, cortisol levels, all of the above."

"I mean, my adrenaline _was_ super high since Iris and the whole city—"

"Stop right there," Wells interrupted. "I don't need to hear any more."

"I'm sorry, but Mark Mardon's already locked in the pipeline and nothing bad has happened!" Barry exclaimed.

"Yet," Wells muttered

Joe knocked as he entered the room, alerting his presence to the others.

"When were you going to tell me you caught Mardon?" the detective asked Barry, walking forward.

"I just haven't had a chance yet."

"You got sidetracked, you mean?"

"No," Barry retorted, "you can't be mad."

"Oh, I'm not mad," Joe replied. "But I _am_ curious. You were acting pretty weird at that crime scene."

"I always act weird," Barry floundered. Harrison snorted.

"All right," Joe replied. "Weird- _er_."

Both Wells and his younger self looked at Barry. The Flash glanced at them, before looking down and saying, "Look, Joe, there are just some things I can't tell you, and you've got to trust me."

Harrison leaned over and whispered, "Great save."

Barry rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to retort as his phone started ringing. The light-headed young man answered his phone, talking on it for a second before hanging up and telling them, "Look, I've got to go. I've got a date with Linda."

As he ran out of the room, Joe looked to the other two and asked, "And I don't suppose you're gonna fill me in either?"

Both of them shook their heads and the elder replied with a short, "No."

Harrison watched Joe walk out of the room, and he could have sworn he had heard the detective mutter, _"So weird,_ " on his way out.

…

Harrison turned around and watched Barry enter the cortex, slapping the doorframe and walking forward slowly. Caitlin seemed to have noticed his sad look as well, for she turned and asked, "What, no whoosh in?"

"No, I needed the walk," he muttered.

"What happened?" Wells asked.

"Nothing," Barry muttered. "Uh, Linda…Iris…I don't want to talk about it."

The other three looked at each other.

"Okay," Harrison said.

"Have you talked to Cisco?" Caitlin asked Barry. "I've been trying him all day, but he's not answering. I'm kind of worried about him. He had a rough night."

"Trust me," Barry smiled. "It got better."

Once more his phone started buzzing.

"Yeah Joe, what's up?" he asked, holding his phone up to his ear. Harrison could vaguely hear the detective say something in reply. Suddenly, when Barry asked, "Wait, Snart's back?" all three of them sat up and began listening attentively.

If Harrison remembered correctly, Snart was the very first villain the team faced after he had arrived there. It seemed so long ago now. In front of them, Barry hung up the phone with a sigh.

"Well," Wells said in a sarcastic tone, "this day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?"

…

Harrison, his doppelganger, and Barry sat in the cortex going through different surveillance cameras of the bar Cisco had last been seen at, frame by frame. Barry sat in a chair with an ice pack pressed against his face, a lethal expression on his face as he sulked. Dr. Wells was flipping through the frames, commenting, "There's Cisco getting in Snart's car with his sister." He zoomed in. "The license plate is iced over."

He sighed and dropped his hands in defeat.

Angrily, Barry kicked the desk he sat at and threw down his icepack.

"All right, Dr. Wells, you were right," he muttered. "I messed with time and now time is messing with me. Cold is back, he kidnapped Cisco, and Iris—"

"Stop right there before you cause another disruption to the timeline," Wells interjected.

Barry stood and shoved his chair away from him.

"I need some air," he muttered, and he stalked out of the room. After glancing to his doppelganger, Harrison followed.

"You okay?" he asked Barry, running slightly to catch up to him.

"No, I'm not okay," Barry sulked. "In—in the previous version of today, Captain Singh is seriously injured, Joe is in danger, Iris said she had feelings for me, and you—"

"What about me?" Harrison interrupted.

"I don't know," Barry muttered. "Iris said something about her coworker—Mason Bridge—investigating you. He said that Simon Stagg went missing a few months ago after you—the other you—talked to him. Anyway, now—"

"Cisco's life is on the line and Iris has no idea she confessed those feelings to you."

Barry nodded.

"But she still has them, right?" he asked.

"I'm sure," Harrison replied. "They are just buried deep in her subconscious. Sometimes we can have feelings for someone and not even realize it. I was in the same situation as Iris—" He cut off, realize the instance he was thinking of neither involved people he remembered meeting in his lifetime or existed in his memory. As he tried to remember what he was saying, it drifted off just as fast. "Anyway, it probably took a catastrophic event to jar those feelings to the forefront."

"I don't understand," Barry muttered. "I thought that I was helping people by taking down Mardon. Now it seems I've just made things worse."

The voice of an old man interrupted his thoughts and Harrison quoted, " _'You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death from the pain of it_.'"

"Yeah," Barry said. "How did you know?"

There was a flash of an image of a man falling through a veil. Harrison snatched at the memory, but it was gone and replaced by feelings of guilt and shame. It was his fault. The whole thing was his fault.

What was his fault?

"I'm…" Harrison trailed off, putting his hands on his chest. Then, he looked up at Barry. "I'm feeling that right now."

"Why?" Barry asked curiously, his own angst forgotten.

The feelings ebbed away as Harrison replied, "…I don't know."

Caitlin walked in just then and asked, "Did you guys find Cisco?"

…

"There's nothing on the satellite thermography," Caitlin muttered, typing at her computer.

Harrison stood as he realized something. He smacked himself in the head and exclaimed, "Of course! I can't believe I didn't think of this!"

"What?" Barry asked. "What is it."

"I think I have a way of tracking down Cisco."

"No need," came a voice from the doorway.

They all turned to see Cisco standing there, looking guilty and beat up.

"Are you okay?" Caitlin asked, getting up to five him a hug. "We were so worried."

"You escaped?" Barry asked.

"No," Cisco mumbled. "He, uh, let me go."

"Why would he do that?" Harrison asked.

Cisco started tearing up.

"They could have killed me," he cried, "but they tortured my brother instead. Snart threatened to kill him if I didn't tell him."

"Tell him what?"

"Who the Flash really is."

Harrison looked at Barry, who's eyes widened.

"I—honestly, man, they could have killed me but they were gonna kill my brother. I c-couldn't let them do that!"

"Hey," Barry said quietly, walking forward.

"I'm sorry, Barry. I'm so sorry."

"No," the Flash replied, giving Cisco a hug. "I put you in that position. I'm the one who's sorry." He let go and Cisco let out a shaky breath, walking away. "Where are you going?"

"I don't deserve to be here," the young man replied. "I'm not going to be the one to put you all in danger ever again."

He left the room and Wells rolled out after him, most likely to convince the man to stay. Barry, Harrison, and Caitlin sat around in shock of what just happened, then, Barry realized, "The casino wasn't the target!"

"What?" Harrison asked.

"Snart attacked a casino," Barry replied, going over to a computer and typing away on it, pulling something up and scanning it. "When casinos are attacked, they move the money out in order to protect it."

"So," Harrison thought aloud, "that was Snart's plan all along. To trigger the emergency protocol so he could access the money easier."

"We need to tell the others," Caitlin said.

…

The Midnight Phantom and the Flash appeared down the road, side by side. Ahead of them, they could see two motorcycles—one with a side car—catching up to a large eighteen-wheeler.

"Let's go," Barry said, running off to intercept them.

Harrison grinned and thrust out his hands, activating the boosts in his shoes. They let out a force-field that propelled him up into the air. Using his powers to steer, he flew ahead of Barry. He watched as the speedster grabbed Snart and ran off. While he did that, Harrison landed on Snart's buddy's motorcycle, kicking it over. On the other side of the road, Snart's sister was attempting to climb out of the side car to take control of the motorcycle. Harrison whipped out his hand and his magic flung her off of the road where she rolled in the grass. The two unmanned motorcycles crashed into each other and exploded.

Fully satisfied, Harrison disapparated.

…

"I got him to agree to not tell anyone who I am," Barry told Harrison. The two sat alone behind the desk in the cortex with Dr. Wells.

"How?" Harrison asked quietly.

"I won't mess with him anymore and he won't kill anyone."

Harrison nodded.

"Not the best, but doesn't sound terrible."

"I thought it was the best option," Barry muttered.

Harrison looked at him.

"You aren't still beating yourself up, are you?" he asked.

Barry shook his head. "At this point, I just need to focus on moving forward."

"Good idea," Harrison replied.

They fell silent.

"Oh, Dr. Wells," Barry called, stopping the elder Wells from leaving the room. "I've been meaning to ask you about—"

He broke off and Harrison looked over at the computer screen the Flash stared at. It showed a news report that read, " _MASON BRIDGE MISSING_."

"Yes?" Dr. Wells prompted.

Barry looked from Harrison to the young man's double.

"Nothing, sorry." he said. He turned off the computer. He stood looking dazed. "'Night Dr. Wells."

"Goodnight Barry," the scientist replied.

Barry put on his coat and slowly walked out of the cortex. Harrison remained sitting there, staring at the blank computer screen. All the things he had been noticing were slowly stacking up against his doppelganger—and by now, even though he still pretended otherwise with the others, he was sure he was from an alternate timeline and not this one where he was apparently _evil_. There were reports of people going missing after the last known person that talked to them was Dr. Wells—now including Mason Bridge. There were the calculating looks, the strange changes in behavior he exhibited. Also, he kept having dreams during the nights and occasionally through the day of an incident where his doppelganger caught onto him and interrogated him, quite terrifyingly.

" _I had thought that you had come here to ruin my plans, and no one—no one can get in my way. But you don't even know who I am, do you?"_

Suddenly, he remembered the encounter perfectly—he had caught the glimpses that had been dangling in his face for the past three months. He remembered waking up in the strange room— _time vault,_ he called it—he remembered Wells interrogating, and finally he remembered being hit in the head with some sort of memory wiper.

The No-Majs had invented some sort of device that did the same job as a memory charm? Harrison shook his head. He usually did not call non-magical people that cursed name. Especially not since he had separated himself from the Wizarding World. Harrison sighed and stood, wandering down to his bedroom. He supposed that he would just have to wait and see how things turned out before he ever hoped of returning home.

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor do I own the Flash**

 **Spoilers for Season One of the Flash. You have been warned!**

* * *

 **Chapter Thirteen:**

"This is everything we know about Harrison Wells," Barry said, pulling down a screen that had pictures, news articles, and pages of Wells' biography. "Which is actually not a lot."

"Didn't you read a whole book on him?" Joe asked, sitting down.

"Yeah, but the 'big take-away' is that he's enigmatic," the Flash replied.

"Your mom was killed by a speedster," Joe thought aloud. "Wells' machine turned you _into_ a speedster. That's one too many coincidences for this old cop."

Barry stepped back, cupping his hands in front of his face in thought. He sat in a chair beside Joe and muttered, "I think I know a way we can find out more."

…

"What did you say was the last thing you remember before getting sent here?" Joe asked.

He and Barry stood over the younger Wells, who sat in a chair in the center of the room. The young man felt an awful lot like he was being interrogated. Harrison rubbed his hand down his face. "I was down at the water front with Tess," he replied. "Why?"

"What year was it?" Joe asked.

"What?"

"What year was it?" the cop repeated.

"2000," Wells replied. "Fifteen years ago."

Joe and Barry looked at each other. "That was the year your mom was murdered," Joe whispered. Barry nodded.

"What is this about?" Harrison asked, getting up. "This is about my doppelganger, isn't it?" Neither of the other two said anything affirmative, but from Joe's guarded expression and Barry's guilty look he could tell he had guessed correctly. "Look I—I need to tell you something."

And he told them about his memory of Wells interrogating him.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Joe asked.

"Joe—" the Flash interrupted.

"No, Barry, we _already know_ that his older-self had something to do with your mom's murder. How do we know he isn't already planning it?"

"Look, I don't know why I am here or how I got here, or even what is going on!" Harrison exclaimed. "What I do know is that I was definitely _not_ planning someone's murder! And I don't see myself ever doing it in the future. Especially to someone I don't even know. What would be the point?"

Barry looked at Joe. "I think he's telling the truth," he reasoned.

Joe said nothing.

"Listen," Harrison pleaded. "I haven't told anyone this—probably because I was wanting to get home so bad that I tried to tell myself otherwise. At least until after our experiment failed—but I don't think I'm from the past. Not _this_ past anyway."

"What do you mean?" Joe asked slowly.

"I mean _this_ ," Harrison gestured wildly to everything around him, "has got to be some sort of alternate reality from mine. At some point someone must have gone in and changed something to create this, because _that man_ is not me. And _that_ I am sure of."

…

"We need help," Harrison muttered, slamming his fists on Barry's desk. He and the speedster had been watching through old surveillance videos on Wells trying to gather information. Barry looked at him. "We can't just do this alone. We need to get someone who isn't personally invested in the case to help."

"Eddie," Joe replied walking up to them. "I've gotten him to help investigate into Wells before. He'll be discreet."

"What about Cisco and Caitlin?" Barry asked. "They should know. If Wells is a murderer, they could be in danger."

"And what if they don't believe you?" Harrison asked. "What if they want answers and they go and ask Wells? Then it would be over. The game would be up. He would know we were on to him."

Barry sighed, "Fine."

"I'll talk to Eddie this evening," Joe told them. "And I may need both of your help."

…

"Look!" Harrison said into the com system. "I'm fast, but not that fast. We need a speedster right about now."

He stood on a balcony observing the scene below him of a man called the Trickster, his son, and hundreds of people below. They had all been administered a poison by the Trickster through their wine in a ploy to get them to transfer their money. Above them, Harrison held the antidote.

" _I can't run forever!"_ Barry cried.

The trickster had slapped a kinetic bomb on the Flash—if he ran at anything under a certain speed, he would explode.

" _Barry, I want you to run into a wall—_ " came Wells' voice.

" _WHAT?_ " the Flash exclaimed.

"— _or more accurately, through one. If you vibrate at the natural frequency of air, your body, your cells, will be in a state of excitement that should allow you to_ phase _through a wall, leaving the bomb on the other side."_

" _Should?"_

" _You can do this, I believe in you."_ Harrison snorted. What great reassurance _that_ was. Then, he decided, it was time for him to move before everyone transferred all of their money—what he needed was a distraction. " _Listen to me, Barry. Breathe. Feel the air. Feel that wind on your face._ "

Harrison catapulted over the railing and landed on the ground below, his boots cushioning the landing and his magic doing the rest. People screamed and jumped out of his way, their bank accounts forgotten.

" _Feel the ground. Your feet, lifting you up—pushing you forward—and the lightning. Barry, feel the lightning._ "

Harrison caught a glimpse of Iris nearby as he shouted, "Everyone stop what you're doing right now, or so help me!"

" _Feel its power. Its electricity pumping through your veins. Crackling through you. Traveling to every nerve of your body like a_ shock _. You're not you now. You're part of something greater—part of a speed force…_ "

Harrison thrust his hand out and raw power crackled from it, exploding into the air. More people screamed.

" _It's yours…_ "

"I like this guy," the Trickster, James Jesse, grinned. "Who are you?"

"The Midnight Phantom," Harrison replied.

" _Now do it._ "

He thrust his hand forward once more, knocking the Trickster and his son off of their feet. There was a yellow flash that travelled quickly through the crowd. Then, Barry appeared on stage holding the vial that had previously been in Harrison's hand only seconds before.

"I just administered the antidote to all of you!" he exclaimed. "You're safe!"

"That wasn't very sanitary," Jesse muttered.

…

The Flash and the Midnight Phantom both appeared in Barry's lab when Joe texted them to meet him there. Harrison appeared with a crack, his black cape swooshing behind him. Barry appeared with his usual flash and crackle of lightning. A few pages on his desk drifted to the ground. At their appearance, the chair by the desk swung around to face them.

Sitting in the chair was Eddie Thawne. He gaped at both of them openly, his jaw dropping even further as Barry and Harrison both looked at each other, Barry nodded, and they pulled off their hoods in unison.

"Barry?" Eddie asked, looking at the Flash, who had crossed his arms across his chest. " _Dr. Wells_? Joe, what's going on? I thought—Hang on, isn't he paralyzed?"

"Eddie," Joe replied, "meet Harrison Wells. Or at least, the _other_ Harrison Wells. I can't exactly explain to you why, but there's two of them."

"Two of them?" Eddie asked.

"Yes," Harrison replied. "One who is roughly forty years old and paralyzed, and myself who is just over twenty and—well—you can see that I am perfectly capable of getting around." He stepped forward, shook the detective's hand, and smiled. "You may call me Harrison. My counter-part is 'Dr. Wells'."

Eddie stared from him, back to the Flash, and then to Joe. Barry stepped forward as well and muttered, "We need your help."

…

"Brazil?" Iris asked incredulously. "Why would Mason move to _Brazil_?"

"I don't know," Eddie replied. "Apparently there was a girl involved. He decided to go hike the Amazon for a year with her."

"Wow," the reporter muttered. "I guess you don't know anyone."

"No," Eddie agreed, turning as the door opened and Barry entered. "You don't."

"Hey, baby, everything good?" Joe asked as he entered the house as well.

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Iris replied. "Um, dinner will be ready in a jiff, okay?"

Once she had left the room, there was a _CRACK_ and Harrison appeared in the room with his suit and mask on.

"You said you had something to tell us?" he asked as Joe made sure Eddie had convinced Iris to stop looking for Mason Bridge.

"Yeah," Barry replied, glancing towards where Iris was.

Harrison waved his hand and an invisible barrier fell down from the ceiling, warping the kitchen beyond it. "She won't be able to hear what we're saying," he said.

Barry nodded. Joe and Eddie turned to listen as he said, "Earlier tonight, Wells was talking me through phasing—so I could get the Trickster's bomb off my wrist—the way he described my being the Flash; running, feeling the wind in my face, the power…It's like he was talking from experience."

"What are you saying?" Joe asked.

"I don't know how, but somehow he's the man in yellow," Barry told them. "The other Harrison Wells is the Reverse-Flash."

…

"Has every crook in Central City gone crazy? This is the third attempted robbery tonight," Joe muttered. He picked up his phone and pressed a button that, according to Cisco, attached him directly to the com system that linked STAR Labs, Barry, and Harrison. "We've got another one."

" _You're still taking out the convenient store robbery,"_ came Harrison's voice. _"I'll get this one_." Joe jumped as there was a loud _CRACK!_ He turned to see the Midnight Phantom sitting in his back seat. "Where is it this time?"

"Eighteenth and Olive," Joe told him.

"Mhm," Harrison nodded, disappearing again.

"I don't know what's worse," Joe said to Eddie, who was driving, "the gusts of wind from Barry running back and forth or the repetitive cracking noise in our back seat."

Eddie shook his head. There was a flash of lightning and Joe asked the Flash, "Who is this?"

Barry shook his head, looking at the guy next to him, and replied, "Indecent exposure. Powell Park."

"That ain't something you should be showing anybody," Joe told the man. Barry nodded.

"They're getting away," Eddie muttered, pressing his foot down on the gas.

"They're not getting away, Eddie," Barry replied.

"Let's get these bozos," Joe said, dangling a pair of handcuffs in front of Barry. "This is going to get a bit crowded."

"I'll take care of that," there was a Flash of yellow.

Eddie, still staring at the road, asked, "What do you think he meant by that?" He turned. Joe was gone. "Joe?"

 _CRACK!_

Harrison was in the backseat once more.

"The guys at the Shiny Diamond are taken care of," Harrison told Eddie. "They're waiting for the police to apprehend them." He glanced around. "Where'd Joe go?"

Eddie shrugged. After a whoosh, another guy appeared in the backseat and Harrison found himself in the front, looking around in confusion.

"Oh," Eddie said. "That's what he meant."

Over in the car they were chasing, the accomplice said, "I think we lost them."

"Oh, no you didn't," Joe replied, pointing his gun in his free hand while the other steered the car. He laughed. "By the way, you're under arrest."

Joe turned the car around and followed Eddie to the jewelry store. They slammed in through the back with their guns raised, looking around wildly. As Harrison and the Flash showed up, they saw the robbers sitting on the ground with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

Harrison handed Joe their guns.

"So, have you guys not heard of us, or what?" Barry asked with a smile, gesturing between him and the dark figure beside him. The Midnight Phantom shot him a look. As Joe began to laugh again, Barry gave him a fist bump, crossed his arms across his chest, and said to Eddie, "Nice work detective."

"Always the need for dramatics," Harrison sighed with a roll of his eyes.

…

"Seismic activity on the outskirts of town," Cisco told them.

Harrison looked up. He remembered the last time they had detected seismic activity out there. The young man rubbed his messy head, remembering all too well the feeling of it slamming into the trough in that barn that he had hunted Earth Shaker down in. He stood and waved his hand, putting on his Midnight Phantom suit.

"Are you sure you should go alone?" Cisco asked. "You remember what happened the last time you faced off with this guy."

Meaning he was hurt to the point where his identity was compromised and learned by Team Flash? Harrison shook his head.

"Cisco's right," Dr. Wells said.

"I'll be fine," the younger muttered. "Besides, Barry's at work. I can handle this."

…

"What do you want?" Harrison shouted across the field he stood in.

A darkly hooded figure stood in the field as well, at least ten feet away. Two red pinpricks gleamed from beneath his hood.

"I thought I could attract your attention by shaking the ground a bit," the figure laughed, the wind howling around them. "No matter what I do, you always show the penchant for heroics, Harrison."

The Midnight Phantom pulled off his mask and stepped forward.

"Who are you?" he asked. "How do you know my name? How did you know it was me under the mask?"

"Because I know _you_ ," the man grinned. "I— _created_ —you."

"Created me?" Harrison asked. "Wh— _How_?"

"In due time you will understand," the man replied walking forward and stopping only a foot from the young man. He was shorter than Harrison, causing him to look down at him. "But I believe you asked my name. I once called myself Transmutation. You know, names are funny things. They are a social construct that humans have made. They define us, whether we make them or they make us. Lately I have felt that a new name is of importance— _Paradox_ would do nicely, don't you think?"

"You're insane," Harrison breathed. Paradox—Transmutation—whoever he was—laughed. "Last time I saw you, you fought me. Said I strayed too far. Why aren't you fighting now?"

"I realized you serve a greater purpose here than I had initially thought," Paradox replied, circling around Harrison. "But we will see each other again, one day."

"Not if I can help it!" Harrison exclaimed, running forward and thrusting out his hands. His magic seemed to melt around the man, leaving him untouched. Harrison tried again and the figure rolled out of the way of the blast, throwing out a metal rod that transformed into a hook and pinned Harrison to the ground by the shoulder of his suit.

"No," Paradox muttered. "Not today. But I will tell you this. If you want to know what's going on—Tess. Find out what happened to Tess."

The ground opened up beneath him and swallowed him whole. The wind continued to blow, ruffling Harrison's dark hair. With a groan, he pulled the metal hook out of his suit and apparated back to STAR Labs.

"What happened?" Cisco asked. "Did you get him."

"No, but—" Harrison broke off. "I'm going to need a day or two off. I just got an idea about what happened when I got sent here. I need to research it."

Dr. Wells nodded, "We understand. Go do what you need to do."

Harrison nodded and disappeared with the usual _CRACK_.

…

Harrison did a search on Tess Morgan and came up with practically nothing. He gathered that she had been his girlfriend—information he already knew—but nothing more, though the article did mention she was deceased. So late that afternoon, wearing a ball cap and his usual dark clothes, Harrison walked into the police department in Starling City. He had a glamor cast on his face that would make his features unnoticeable once more and sported a badge that was pinned to his lapel and had been charmed with a Confundus Charm. It was very easy to slide into the SCPD, and even easier to find the chief of police—a man named Larry Lance.

Harrison waved his little badge at Lance and said, "Central City Picture News. I'm here about a case involving Harrison Wells."

Lanced blinked at his badge, his eyes unfocused.

"Yeah, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"I'm looking into Dr. Wells, is there anything you can tell me? Any police reports?"

"There was one, yeah," he muttered. "Fifteen years ago. It was an open and shut case, he was driving home from the waterfront when the tires blew. He lost control of the car. The crash killed his fiancée, Tess Morgan. According to the coroner, died upon impact. Wells made it out alive. I reckon he's still carrying around the guilt from that day…" He blinked again. "Why am I telling you this?"

Harrison nearly reeled back. His heart stopped. He had suspected that she was dead when she wasn't in STAR Labs all the past months. However, the young man did not expect the news that he had been the one to kill her. He only barely heard himself ask, "Where? Where did they crash?"

"County Road J," the captain replied.

…

The sun began to set as Harrison sat on the side of the road, his legs dangling down the high barrier that sat there, blocking off a bunch of tall weeds. Why had Paradox told him to find out how Tess died? What did the fact that he was supposed to kill her when he got back have to do with his current predicament?

He sighed and stuck his head in his hands. The young man choked down the hot tears that came up. As he did so, his throat tightened, searing with guilt. How was he supposed to go back now, knowing what was in store for him? He couldn't. Harrison couldn't accept that Tess was dead. She technically wasn't—not in his time. Perhaps this was where it all went wrong—that car wreck. Perhaps it was the reason an alternate timeline from his was created.

Was that why he was sent here? To learn that? Harrison shook his head. He had had enough of acting the detective for one day. Still stewing on everything he had just learned, he returned back to STAR Labs. He reappeared in his room, where he took off the glamours, ball cap, and the fake CCPN badge.

The young man still, listening to the sounds of bangs and yells upstairs. Wondering what on Earth was going on, Harrison ran up to the cortex where he heard a computer say, "Containment breach. Foreign object detected." The older Dr. Wells was entering as well from a separate room. He neared the cortex, catching sight of Cisco and Caitlin back to back and spinning in circles. As he entered the room, Cisco fired a large blast of electricity in his general direction, hitting the desk and blasting a hole in it with a yell.

"What the hell, man, you could have hit me!" Harrison cried, jumping back.

"Did I get it?" Cisco asked.

"Get what?" Harrison retorted. "I've been gone for _one day_. What happened _now_?"

He walked over to Cisco and then jumped back as something small and metallic flew by him towards his doppelganger.

"Woah!" Harrison exclaimed. "What is that?" He watched it fly straight towards his doppelganger. Then, there was a flash and Barry appeared wearing a suit and screwing a lid on a little clear tube. "What did I miss?"

"Long story short," Cisco replied, "We're fighting a lady with killer bees—that is one of them. And Barry almost died."

" _What?_ " the young man exclaimed.

"Let's take a look at this guy," Cisco said, taking it from Barry. He made a face and ran to the next room, putting the tube under a microscope.

"That is one odd looking bee," Caitlin muttered, looking at it.

"That's because it isn't a bee," Cisco told her, one eye pressed into the microscope. "It's a robot."

…

After spending a day out, it was very hard to catch up to what was going on. However, twenty-four hours later found Harrison running with Barry to apprehend a creepy bee lady named Bri Larvaen while a man named Ray Palmer—who was apparently in the city to get help on building a suit that would make him a super hero—Cisco, and Caitlin went to protect Tina McGee, who was being hunted down by aforementioned, psycho Bug-Eyed Bandit.

It was a little strange facing off with a scientist that kept using bee puns, even stranger to be stuck in the middle of the most terrifying swarm of bees he had seen in his life with the Flash while Felicity (a friend of Barry's) and said scientist had a hacking duel. _Really_ , a _hacking_ duel. Finally, Felicity disabled the electronic bees and Barry cuffed Bri to her chair, saying, "I've got her. Call CCPD."

Then, they Ray's voice over the com's say, " _Cisco's been stung. He's going into shock._ "

"We're on our way!" Barry replied.

He nodded to Harrison before dashing off. Harrison then turned on his heel and kneeled near Cisco, watching Barry run up and say, "All right, get back. I'm gonna try something."

The three of them backed up and watched Barry begin to vibrate his hands until electricity bounced off of them. He quickly hit Cisco on the chest with his hands. Cisco's back arched and he fell back to the ground limply. They watched impatiently.

"Cisco," Barry said.

Cisco's eyes snapped open and he let in a gasp of air. Barry helped him sit up and he said, "Either my fear of bees is over, or it just got a whole lot worse."

…

"Can I ask you something?" Cisco asked, walking up to Harrison that night.

Everyone else had left, leaving the cortex empty. Harrison looked up at his friend. "What?"

"Is everything all right with Barry?" he asked.

Harrison looked at the young man, trying to decide what to say to the young man—whether he could be trusted or not. Then, deciding to play it safe and decide later whether to tell him, Harrison replied with the excuse Joe had taught him and Barry earlier.

"I think he's just worried about the Reverse Flash is all. He's probably just stressed."

Cisco's eyes widened and his face fell blank for a second, his eyes glazing over.

"Cisco," Harrison said, jolting the other man out of his strange behavior. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Cisco muttered, "I just haven't had a good night's rest in a while—keep having weird dreams."

Harrison looked at him, feeling like Cisco was acting exactly like he did whenever he had those strange moments where everything around him felt wrong—when he received strange images and voices and feelings in his mind. Was Cisco remembering something he had been forced to forget? Deciding to let it go, Harrison nodded.

"Anyway," Cisco said, seeming to wake up from a dream. "That's what Joe told me—about the Reverse Flash. I just…"

He sighed.

"Get some rest, Cisco," Harrison said, putting his hand on the young man's shoulder. "I'll talk to Barry if it makes you feel any better."

Cisco nodded a thanks and walked out.

…

The next morning Harrison apparated to Barry's lab.

"Hey," he said. "We need to talk."

"'Sup?" Barry asked.

Harrison walked around behind the shelves to look at the speedster as he stood up. There, he replied, "I think we should tell Cisco."

"You—you do?" Barry asked.

Harrison nodded, "We all saw him take that bee for Ray. That's only something a person with a good heart would do. A person like that wouldn't betray you, even if he thought what he was doing was right. You saw what he did when he realized that the gun he had made for you _before_ he knew what you were like was stolen. Plus, I think he's hiding something."

"Hiding something?" Barry asked.

Harrison was just opening his mouth to reply when a voice interrupted his conversation.

"Mr. Allen?" Barry walked out to see Tina McGee standing there. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Her eyes flickered to the shelf that Harrison was standing behind. The man in question quietly walked forward and watched through a set of jars, making sure his face was obscured.

"Oh, no," Barry lied terribly, waving his hand. "Just police business—which I have plenty of time to do, of course."

"Well, I just wanted to apologize," Tina said honestly. "I should have listened when you warned me about Bri. Perhaps next time I will take the CCPD's offer of protection."

"After we lost your tachyon prototype, I can understand why you were hesitant to trust us."

Tina smiled and said with a nod, "Thank you."

As she walked out, Barry stopped her, asking, "Can I ask you something? I couldn't help but notice some tension between you and Dr. Wells."

"That's all in the past," she said, her smile still there.

"Do you mind if I ask what happened between you two?"

"I ask myself that same question every day," she replied with a sad look. "Fifteen years ago, Harrison and I were as thick as thieves. We were promising young scientists in Starling City." She sighed. "He was such a kind man. Then everything changed after Tess died."

Harrison's eyes watered slightly.

"They were going to get married," Barry commented.

"I can understand how grief can affect someone, but this was more than that. It was like, after that day Harrison Wells became a completely different person."

Barry turned and glanced at Harrison through the shelf with wide eyes.

"Good day," Tina said kindly, leaving the room.

"Bye," Barry whispered.

Harrison emerged from behind the shelves as Joe entered the room, asking, "How's Cisco?"

"Happy to be alive," Barry replied. "And sad that Ray is leaving. That was a brave thing he did."

"Yeah," Joe replied.

"Selfless," Barry added.

Joe nodded and glanced at Harrison.

"What are you doing here?"

"We were just having a discussion," the young man replied.

"Oh," Joe muttered. "Well I'll see you two later, then."

Once he was gone, Harrison and Barry turned to face each other. The former watched as the speedster began pacing around the room.

"What you said earlier, about Wells not being you," Barry muttered. "And now Christina McGee saying that he became like a whole different person…" He stopped and looked at Harrison, who almost knew what he was going to say before he said it. "What if he _did_ become a different person entirely?"

…

"All right who's ready for some karaoke?" Cisco asked as he and Caitlin entered Barry's lab. Joe sat om a chair by the wall and Harrison had a chair pulled up beside him. Before them, Barry sat leaning against the desk. A paper was pulled down that held all of the information from Barry's mom's case, and all three men had grave expressions.

"We are not going to karaoke, are we?" Caitlin asked.

Barry shook his head.

"No," he muttered. "This is everything we know about my mom's murder and the Reverse Flash." He gestured to the paper that hung down from a board. Then, he stepped forward and pulled down another paper. "And this is everything we know about Dr. Wells."

Cisco stepped forward, looking at the pictures and articles. Caitlin stood rooted to the spot, shaking her head.

"I don't understand," she said slowly. "What do Dr. Wells and the Reverse Flash have to do with each other?"

"Um," Barry whispered. He turned to Harrison and Joe for help. Joe gave him a look.

Harrison stood and stepped up beside Barry and said, "They're the same person."

"That's impossible," Caitlin dismissed.

"A lot of things were once thought to be impossible before they were proven true," Harrison replied.

"You have proof?"

"Not exactly," Harrison said. "Nothing other than what we have to say," he gestured between himself, Barry, and Joe. "But why would I argue against my own honesty unless it was true?"

Caitlin took a step backwards.

"You're crazy," she muttered.

"Look, Caitlin," Barry pleaded. "It took me a long time to believe it too, but it's him."

"Dr. Wells is a speedster?" Caitlin questioned with an incredulous tone. "He can't even walk. He's paralyzed."

"Is he?" Joe asked.

"And why would he kill Barry's mother?" she asked. "It doesn't make any sense." She paused and looked at Cisco, who was still staring ahead of him at the papers. "Cisco. Say something."

Slowly turning to look at her, he said, "I've been having these dreams. Mostly at night, but sometimes during the day. But they don't really feel like dreams—they…they feel real."

"What happens in them?" Harrison asked with a low and steady voice, his eyes piercing into Cisco's.

"Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash," Cisco replied, pausing slightly, before continuing, "and he kills me."

* * *

 **And we are getting into the thick of things!**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own things**

* * *

 **Chapter Fourteen:**

Cisco, Barry, Harrison, and Joe all stood in the West house waiting for Eddie and Caitlin to show up. Harrison was feeling slightly wary that Caitlin would not be on board with their search—she had argued very adamantly against the other Wells being involved, after all. Nevertheless, the four men stood going over their plan of what to do next.

"So what do we do now?" Cisco asked.

"So far all the investigating I've done has gotten me nowhere," Joe replied. "I think we need to go back to where it all started."

"The crash where Tess died," Harrison muttered.

"You know about that?" Joe asked.

"Apparently it was supposed to have happened the day I got sent here," the black-haired young man returned. "I, uh—investigated into it yesterday, in fact."

"Do you know where the site is?" Joe asked.

Harrison nodded and said, "I can take you there."

"I'll go with you," Cisco said. "But—can we _please_ just drive? Your method of travel is terrible."

Harrison laughed, recalling that Cisco had thrown up the first time Harrison had side-along apparated with him. "All right," he agreed.

"Hey, Bear," Joe said to the speedster. "Why don't you run and get us some pizza?"

"All right," Barry nodded and sped off.

Caitlin finally arrived. She was let in the front door by Cisco and glanced around at the four men that stood in the living room. Instead of joining them, she opted to sit on the stairs by the front door. Not long after, Eddie joined them as well. As he walked in the room, he asked, "Where's Barry?"

"He should be back soon," Joe told him. "I sent him to go get—"

There was a flash of light and a whooshing sound that cut him off. When Barry came to a halt in the living room holding three flat boxes, he exclaimed, "Pizza!"

"What!" Cisco cried in a sing-song voice.

"From Coast City?" Eddie asked, reading the box.

"Supposedly the best in the west," Barry told them, taking off his coat after he set the boxes on the coffee table.

Joe, Eddie, and Cisco crowded around it, grabbing some pieces, and Barry grabbed one as well. "Why did I not think of this before?" Cisco asked as he threw open the lid to the third box. "Come to papa!"

"You want one?" Joe asked Harrison.

The young man shook his head and said, "No."

Joe raised a piece at Caitlin, who mumbled, "I'm not hungry."

Joe sucked in a gust of air and said, "Ok. Six months of investigating Harrison Wells has led us nowhere. So, we're going back to the beginning to see what we can find out."

"What does that mean?" Eddie asked.

"Road trip, baby," Cisco replied in between chews.

"Joe, Cisco, and Harrison are going to Starling City," Barry explained.

"Starling City?" Caitlin asked. "What for?"

"To investigate the car accident that Dr. Wells was in with Tess Morgan fifteen years ago," Joe added.

"I-I don't understand," Caitlin said, her eyes scrunched up. She stood up off of the stairs and walked forward. "Why?"

"Dr. McGee said that after Wells' accident he became like a completely different person," Barry told her.

"Because the love of his life died," Caitlin argued. "You of all people know how grief can change a person."

Harrison stepped forward, his eyes glinting like steel. Joe put his hand on the young man's shoulder and said reassuringly, "Caitlin, we believe that Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash, and killed Barry's mother. We don't know what happened to Tess Morgan," he glanced at Harrison, "but we have to learn everything we can about that night. See where it leads us."

"Can you cover for us with my doppelganger?" Harrison asked.

"You mean lie?" Caitlin asked.

"…Yeah?" Cisco replied.

"I need some air," she muttered, turning and exiting through the front door.

Harrison looked at Barry and said, "Just tell him that I'm researching for new ways to get me home—and Cisco is dealing with his brother. That would sound believable enough."

Barry nodded. Silence fell and the five men looked at each other. Joe glanced at the front door and remarked, "It doesn't look like Caitlin's with us."

"No, she is," Barry said firmly. "I'll talk to her."

"What do you want us to do while you're gone?" Eddie asked.

"Business as usual," the senior cop replied.

His partner nodded and said, "Copy that."

Cisco then smiled brightly, "Road trips are _always_ the best."

…

 _As Harrison grew older, he slowly came to realize that the Wizarding World in America was less and less grand to him. As a bright-eyed eleven-year-old he had been sent a letter, received a wand and immersed himself in Wizarding studies as well as No-Maj. It surprised him how long it took others to notice what he was doing._

 _He was in his third year at Ilvermorny and taking college courses before his roommates figured it out. When they had, they had balked and exclaimed, "You'd better not let the Head find out, Wells, or they'll kick you out."_

" _They might even kick us out if they know we know what you're doing."_

" _I don't understand," Harrison muttered. "Why would they kick me out?"_

" _For a self-proclaimed genius, you're pretty dumb."_

" _Rappaport's Law, idiot," another replied._

" _All No-Maj—Wizard relations are banned, punishable by law. There's a whole group of people that monitor No-Maj fraternization and they'll lock you away if they find out."_

" _But my parents are No-Majs," Harrison exclaimed. "What am I supposed to do? Never see them again?"_

" _That would be the thought._ "

…

"Road trips are _terrible_!" Cisco exclaimed, leaning his head back against his headrest. He sat in the back seat of Joe's car while Joe and Harrison sat up front, talking. Currently, they were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. "Why was I excited for this?"

"I don't know," Joe laughed. "Why were you?"

Harrison sighed and rested his head on his hand, which was propped up on the window sill. "We could have just gotten there instantly," he nearly whined. He turned and looked at Cisco. "For the record, this is _your_ fault."

"Well," Joe muttered, looking at his phone. "It looks like there's a wreck up ahead. We'll probably be here a while."

"Can't you just pull off at a different exit and bypass the wreck?" Harrison asked.

"Do you see an exit we can get to?" Joe asked.

Harrison looked around and sighed, "No."

"Well it's not entirely bad," Cisco said from the back, perking up a bit.

"Why?" Harrison asked, his eyes closed to block out the sun that was shining directly in his eyes.

"I brought this."

Harrison opened one eye to see Cisco lean forward and stick a CD into the car. He switched the stereo from radio to CD and Harrison suddenly found that _Phantom of the Opera_ was being blasted at them.

"You've got to be kidding," Joe moaned.

Cisco grinned even wider, "It's great, right?"

Harrison rolled his eyes and let them drift shut again as the sun came back out from behind the clouds. The light filtered through the windshield, feeling warm and pleasant. Beside him, Joe leaned forward. One hand blocked out the sun and the other rested on the steering wheel. The detective peered ahead of them in attempts to see if there were any moving cars ahead of them.

During a slow, quiet song Harrison found himself drifting off into sleep.

…

 _It wasn't long after coming to Ilvermorny that Harrison discovered he was the only one there from a non-magical family. Apparently most children born of non-magicals were ignored—there were generally less of them than in other nations because of the strict segregation laws and the MACUSA only took note of the No-Maj born children if they were so powerful that their magic endangered something known as the International Statute of Secrecy._

 _Therefore, his situation was just a bit unique. Still, Harrison forgot about the stupid laws as he slowly dropped his communications with his parents during the school year and immersed himself in advanced magics. It wasn't until after he had received his wand permit (something that happened once a Wizarding child came of age) and was nearing the end of his last term that it was brought to his mind again._

 _The head of the school had called him into her office and given him a lecture about integrating himself into Wizarding Society. She told him that he was a promising young man with lots of future and if he wanted to pursue any career, he needed to cut himself off from his No-Maj friends._

" _But my parents—"_

" _You are adopted, are you not?"_

 _Harrison looked down and mumbled, "Yes, Ma'am."_

" _Then it should be no problem. That probably explains your magic, anyway. Perhaps your parents are respectable wizards and witches that couldn't find you after you getting lost in the Muggle world. You might be able to find them."_

 _Harrison had nodded and walked out of there before he realized that at this point, he didn't want to know who his real parents were. In his mind, his No-Maj parents were the only family he had—or needed._

…

"Harrison, wake up!"

The tall young man awoke with a jerk.

"We're here," Joe said.

Harrison sat up, unsticking his face from the window. At some point his head must have fallen off his hand for he was no longer leaning on it, but the window instead. He climbed out of the car looking slightly ruffled and joined Cisco and Joe. He looked up at the building they were parked outside of.

"The SCPD?" Harrison asked, looking at the police department building.

"I figured they could help us out—give us some pictures from the case," Joe explained.

Harrison hadn't even thought of pictures.

…

"Here you go," Lance said, handing them a case file.

Muttering a, "Thanks," Joe flicked through the pictures inside. Then, he looked up at Starling City's chief of police. "This is all you have?"

"Well it was a very cut-and-dry case," Lance replied. "Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan are out on a Sunday drive. The tires blow, and sadly Tess dies on the scene. Couldn't imagine trying to carry that kind of guilt around." It was almost exactly the same words he had used when talking to Harrison. The wizard supposed that being under the Confundus Charm, the man wouldn't have even remembered the encounter.

As he talked, Joe handed a few of the pictures to Cisco to look at. Harrison glanced down at one that showed a car completely flipped over and lying in the middle of the road. He swallowed and forced himself to look away.

"What are you three hoping to find?" Lance asked.

"We're not sure yet," Joe said slowly.

"You came out all this way to Starling City and you don't know what you're looking for?"

"Just following a hunch," Joe replied. He took the pictures Cisco handed back to him and stuck them in the case file. He turned to his two companions. "Let's go."

"All right," Harrison said quietly. "I'll take you there, and this time we're doing it my way."

…

It was an overcast day in Starling City. Trees hung over County Road J and it was completely empty. All was silent—there weren't even birds chirping. The tall, dry grasses swayed slightly behind the barriers. Then, a loud _CRACK_ disturbed the silence. The grass rustled, and three men appeared in the middle of the street.

Joe held up the picture of the road and the crashed car, muttering, "This is definitely the place."

"Why did you bring that thing along, Cisco?" Harrison asked in an exasperated tone as Cisco hefted a large object that looked like a metal detector.

Cisco swayed slightly, gasping for breath. Then, he said, "It'll help me listen for anything that emits an abnormal soundwave."

He switched it on and wandered off over the barriers, waving the object towards the ground. Joe and Harrison both shook their heads and watched him walked back and forth, shouting random things.

"Oh, that's some _tall_ grass!" He disappeared into said grass.

"Brambles! Brambles! Aaaah…!"

There was a scream and then, "Ok, I'm good. It was a bird."

Joe and Harrison were laughing very loudly at him by the time he shouted, "Guys I think I found something!" The two men hopped over the barrier and walked up to Cisco, who said, "Tachyons. Little bits of time travel."

"You sure?" Joe asked.

The both glanced over at Harrison's coffee, which was beginning to fly into the air.

"Pretty sure, yeah," Cisco replied.

"What should we do?" Harrison asked.

"Dig, I guess," Joe muttered. He looked at Harrison. "You don't happen to have a shovel with you, do you?"

The young man in question waved his hand and one appeared.

"That works," Cisco said brightly.

Cisco took the shovel and began digging into the ground. Then, he stopped as the spade hit something. Joe leaned into the hole the young man had dug into the soft soil. He put on a pair of gloves, grabbed a paper towel out of his briefcase, and began clearing away the soil. Slowly, he began to uncover an object that was pale, wrinkly, and limp. Harrison turned his head and realized that it looked an awful lot like—

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is," Cisco muttered.

"That is definitely a hand," Joe replied.

"See, I thought it was a foot," Cisco clarified, "but a hand is just as bad." Harrison gave Cisco a pained look. They both looked down again to see Joe was continuing to clear the dirt away. Where he was swiping, a skull appeared. "That is freaky."

"That, is proof Cisco," Joe said.

"I'm gonna need to test it to be certain," the long-haired scientist said. "I need my kit."

Harrison sighed and waved his hand once more.

"Is something supposed to be happening?" Cisco asked.

Harrison raised an eyebrow and lifted a finger for silence. Then, Cisco's kit came zooming down the road. It turned and soared straight into Harrison's outstretched hands. He handed it to his friend.

"How are we going to get this whole thing back to Central City?" Joe asked while Cisco took some samples. "Surely we can't stick it in the trunk of my car."

"I'll take care of that," the Midnight Phantom replied.

…

 _Harrison somehow managed to blend right in with everyone else at college. He knew what the Head had told him, but he had been aspiring to become a scientist since he was a boy. Why should he let the fact that he had magic deter him from that? He simply disappeared from the Wizarding World after applying for a few jobs and got himself a scholarship at Yale._

 _He got away with it pretty well. So far, no one had noticed his absence in the Wizarding World and he refrained from using all magic entirely. He went through courses with ease. Finally, his first term came to an end. He was walking across a lawn towards his dormitories when something hit him and he dropped his books. He stepped to the side to see a dark figure run in front of him. He glanced around at his belongings, quickly realizing his wallet was missing._

" _Hey!" he shouted. "Get back here!"_

 _But the figure did not even slow. With a growl, Harrison ran after him, but could not catch up. He looked around. No one else was nearby. Quickly, he turned on his heel and disappeared, reappearing behind a tree in front of the running man. He stepped out from behind the tree as the man ran passed and swung his fist as hard as he could. The thief fell to the ground, unconscious. Harrison grabbed his wallet and ran._

…

"This isn't possible," Caitlin breathed.

"Caitlin," Cisco said quietly. "I ran the test twice. This body is the real Dr. Wells."

Harrison looked down at the remains of body lying on a table in Barry's labs. He was suddenly finding it hard to swallow. His mouth had gone dry.

"If this is the real Wells," Caitlin thought aloud, "then who have we been working for all this time?"

"Tina _did_ say I became like a different person," Harrison muttered. He couldn't wrench his eyes from his own dead body. "That's because _he_ —Well, he _is_ a completely person."

…

 _Harrison Wells opened the door to his dormitory and stepped inside. There, he set his bag and wallet down on a shelf. He stepped forward into the main portion of the room and stopped at the sight of a man standing there. The first thing Harrison noticed about him was that he was wearing robes. The second was the wand that quickly lifted to point at him._

" _I don't know if you realized, but there are laws prohibiting your being here," the man said._

" _What gave me away?" Harrison asked. "It was the apparating, wasn't it?"_

 _The man nodded. "Dean Hornfeck, Head of No-Maj Fraternization Surveillance. We received signal of magic being used in a No-Maj only area. I was sent here to investigate with a prior warning of your background."_

 _Harrison crossed his arms across his chest._

" _Meaning my No-Maj parents," he retorted, receiving a nod._

" _I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take you in."_

 _Harrison nodded. "All right. Let's get this over with."_

 _The man looked at him._

" _You are just going to come back here after we let you go, aren't you?" he asked._

" _Uh, yeah," Harrison replied._

" _And we can't keep you away?" Hornfeck asked, sounding sure of the answer._

" _No," the young man replied simply._

 _Hornfeck sighed and thought hard. Then, he looked up at Harrison. "I'll make you a deal," he said. "I'll let you choose your world. Choose to stay here, and you'll put away your wand. Live as a Muggle. Not produce children. If you do that, we'll leave you be. If you choose the Wizarding World, then you can get a nice job in the MACUSA—given your school records, anyone would accept you—and you can have a family there. What's your choice?"_

" _My family is already here," Harrison replied. "I don't need any more."_

" _All right," Hornfeck nodded, getting up off of the rolling chair he had been sitting on. He pointed a finger at Harrison. "But I'd better not see your face again."_

" _Roger that," Harrison replied, and the man disapparated._

 _Harrison shook his head. He grabbed his wallet and decided to go get some food. He went into the cafeteria and grabbed some food. As he turned to pick out a remote table, he bumped straight into someone, accidently knocking over their tray. A pair of dark blue eyes blinked at him over the tray._

" _I am so sorry," he muttered. "Let me—let me get you some more food."_

 _He turned away and grabbed a new tray, filling it up. The young man turned back and handed it to the young woman standing there. Caught in her dark blonde hair was a goop of pudding, which was also spilled on her shirt._

" _I'm so sorry," he repeated._

" _It's all right," she smiled. With one hand, she zipped up her jacket to cover it. "I hated this shirt anyway. Now I have an excuse to get rid of it."_

 _Harrison nodded awkwardly and turned away._

" _You have the same major as me, don't you?" she asked._

 _Harrison turned back to her, saying, "I guess."_

" _You're in a lot of my classes," she smiled._

" _Oh," he muttered, turning red._

" _You aren't going to go sit by yourself, are you?" she asked. "What's your name, anyway?"_

" _Harrison," he replied. "Harrison Wells."_

" _Tess Morgan," she said, shaking his free hand with her own pudding covered one._

" _Well, I guess I'll see you around, Tess Morgan," he said, finally smiling himself. He began to walk away to sit at his usual table and turned back one more time to look at her as she sat with her friends, laughing happily. Then, he sat and began to eat._

* * *

 **:) A bit of backstory for you guys!**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	15. Chapter 15

**I don't own...**

 **So um, continuing spoilers for Season One of the Flash...**

* * *

 **Chapter Fifteen:**

"What are you doing?" Caitlin asked curiously, walking up to Cisco, who was flipping through layouts of STAR Labs. Barry and Harrison both peered over his shoulder.

"after the accelerator exploded, I built a 3D model of STAR Labs," the young man expounded, "so I could pinpoint exactly what caused the malfunction."

"So, why haven't you run it before?" Barry asked.

"I _did_ ," Cisco replied. "I just didn't have any reason to look outside the pipeline or the cortex. It's a big building. Lots of places for Wells to hide something."

Suddenly the computer stopped on a specific portion of the building, highlighting a small rectangular cavity in red.

"What is that?" Barry questioned.

" _That_ ," Cisco muttered, "shouldn't be there."

Harrison remembered the room he had been stashed in when the other Wells had interrogated him. Perhaps the cavity was that room. He looked at the others.

"That's it," he told them. "That's where he took me."

"Let's go check it out," Cisco stated firmly, getting up out of his chair.

They went to the portion of the building it was located in, Cisco toting his big 'not a metal detector' in order to read unusual energy waves. Slowly the ticking sound increased as they went down the hallway, Cisco waving it around along the right hand wall.

"I'm picking up more activity over here," he said, wandering over to the wall and coming to a halt as the sensor went berserk. He looked at the wall panel he stood in front of and breathed, "Tachyons. Here."

Curious, Barry stepped forward and slowly placed his hands on the panel. He ran them up and down, feeling for any sign of a secret doorway. Then, he spread them out to the next panels on the left and right. The concrete under his right hand began to glow blue and the panel he stood in front of melted away with some sort of advanced tech. They found themselves standing in front of a black rectangle—the cavity was so dark it seemed solid. Barry turned around and looked at them with a bewildered expression. Slowly, he stepped forward and disappeared into the darkness, little blue lights in the doorway highlighting his frame.

Caitlin, Cisco, and Harrison looked at each other warily. Harrison was the next to step forward, taking a deep breath and walking into the darkness. As the blue flashed in his eyes, he experienced another flashback—

 _As the door behind him shut, cutting off the cheery yellow light from the torch-lit corridor they had just come from, they were all plunged into darkness. The only thing he could see were shivering blue flames on the walls, reflected on the smooth floor below…_

The door slid shut behind Cisco and Caitlin and the darkness became absolute. Then, a single light was illuminated. It cast tall shadows on the bumpy wall behind them and lit up an object that made all four young adults stop and do a double take—it was the Reverse Flash's suit—it had been in STAR Labs all along and none of them had known it.

"Oh my God," Caitlin breathed.

All four looked around the room as lights turned on, bathing the entire room in a white light. It was then that Harrison knew for sure that this was where he had been taken—the time vault. A voice called his attention to the front of the room as Barry muttered, "Guys?" He, Caitlin, and Cisco turned and looked to see a news article blown up on the far wall. The headline read ' _FLASH MISSING—VANISHES IN CRISIS'_

"What the frack?" Cisco asked in surprise.

"'In an epic showdown with the Reverse Flash, our city's very own scarlet speedster disappeared in an explosion of light'?" Barry read aloud.

"Look at the date," Harrison gasped as his eyes caught on it.

"April 25th, 20… _24_?" Barry read in surprise. "Guys, when I fought the Reverse Flash in December, he said we would be fighting for centuries."

"Wait, you can't really think this is from…the future," Caitlin muttered.

Harrison raised his eyebrows at her.

"Am I really hearing what I think you're saying?"

"This means that the other Wells—whoever he is—is from the future," Cisco realized. He looked at the picture in the article. "Man, I'm really digging the brighter red suit. And the white on the symbol? That's dope." He stopped. "Wait a second. Suppose we now change the color on the suit—will it be because we got the idea from this picture? That would mean we're living in a causal nexus. Wow this is _so_ trippy. Like 'Marty and the Polaroid' trippy."

"Not as trippy as the by-line," Caitlin said.

Harrison's eyes shot to it.

"Iris West— _Allen_?"

Sure enough, it read 'Iris West-Allen'.

"Mazel tov?" Cisco asked.

"Hebrew," said a voice, making them all jump. "Ancient language of the Jewish people."

"Uh-uh," Cisco said loudly. "What the hell was that?"

"I-is someone here?" Barry asked.

"Good going," Harrison snarked. Barry made a face.

"Hello?"

Replacing the news article, a large face appeared on the far wall. It reminded Harrison of something like a hologram in a movie such as _Star Wars_.

"Good evening, Barry Allen," the face said.

All four young adults turned to the face, stunned—and possibly just a little freaked out. Cisco was still holding his hands up near his face in a cross between a weird cringe and a gesture to protect himself with his fists.

"Uh….hi," Barry floundered. "Um, you know who I am?"

"Of course," the face replied. "Barry Allen, Director of Central City Police—CSI Division."

"Director?" Barry asked.

"I guess you get a promotion," Cisco muttered, still looking uncomfortable.

"Also known as the Flash," the face continued. "Founding member of—"

"What are you?" Barry interrupted.

"I am Gideon," the face replied. "An interactive artificial consciousness."

"AI," Cisco breathed. "Sick."

"You know Dr. Wells?" Barry asked.

"Yes," Gideon returned.

"Do you know who he is?"

"I do not understand the question."

"I—I mean," Barry stammered. "Who he _really_ is—why is he here?"

The AI zoomed out, showing a full humanoid form, and Gideon replied, "To kill you."

Behind them, Cisco's phone buzzed, and he said, "The other Wells is in the building."

Harrison looked at him in mild confusion.

"How do you know that?"

"I put a tracker on his chair," the long-haired scientist told them. "Which, if we're wrong and he really is a cripple, I'm going to hell for that one." There was a pause. "He's in the cortex—ask questions fast."

His voice cracking, Barry asked, "Why did he kill Nora Allen?"

"Because he was angry."

"About _what_?"

"That you escaped."

"He's on B level. He's coming this way," Cisco told them, still staring at his phone.

"What does he want from me?" Barry asked.

"For you to be the Flash," Gideon replied.

" _What_?"

"Maybe that's why Wells let the particle accelerator explode," Caitlin said.

"—In doing that he _created_ the Flash," Harrison interrupted.

"Why?" Barry asked. "I mean, for what reason?"

"Guys, we gotta go," Cisco said. He was beginning to panic. "He's almost here!"

They all moved around, getting ready to run. Harrison grabbed Cisco's arm, ready to apparate and the long-haired young man said, "No. Nope. There is no way you're _popping_ out of here. That is _way_ too loud. He'd hear." He paused. "Wait. What if HAL over there tells Wells we were here?"

"Mmmmm," Harrison groaned, throwing his head back slightly in aggravation.

"If I can get into its operating system, maybe I can disable its memory core," Cisco mused.

"Uh, Gideon, can you show us where you operating center is?" Barry asked.

"Certainly."

Cisco handed his phone to Harrison and stepped forward, rubbing his hands together. Behind the humanoid figure appeared a matrix that resembled a blue layered bee-hive with red streaks. It was unlike anything they had ever seen. Cisco laughed nervously and said, "Haha, _nope_. That's not happening."

Harrison looked down at Cisco's phone.

"He's in the corridor."

"Uh—can you just _not_ tell Wells that we were here…?" Barry stuttered.

"Of course. I will accept any command given by you."

"Barry we need to get out of here," Harrison growled.

Barry stopped. "Wait!…W-why w-would you accept _my_ commands?"

"Because you made me."

Then, Gideon disappeared as Barry grabbed the others and ran out of the room. He ran in the opposite direction Wells was coming from. Harrison wordlessly cast a monitoring spell on the time vault as the four of them sat as far out of earshot that Barry had taken them, breathing heavily in terror.

" _Good evening Gideon_ ," came the other Wells's voice.

"Dude, did you do that?" Cisco asked, looking around wildly at Wells' voice. Harrison nodded and held up a finger to his lips.

" _Everything all right?_ " his doppelganger asked.

" _Yes,"_ Gideon replied. _"Everything is fine_."

Harrison cancelled the charm and Cisco breathed out heavily, exclaimed, "Whew! That definitely makes me feel better about my existence continuing on this Earth." Then he looked at Harrison. "Since when could you hear everything we say? Is that how you knew what was going on when you were supposedly in your room? Hang on. Is that why you always creep up and pop into our conversations at the randomest times?"

"Cisco," Harrison grunted. "Now is not exactly the time."

…

"For four very smart people, that was very stupid," Joe said as he paced about the living room in his house. "What if the other Wells had caught you in that—?"

He waved his hand for help.

"Time vault," Harrison supplied.

"Thank you," he said curtly.

"Okay, I know we've seen a lot this past year, but time travel?" Eddie asked.

"I've done it," both Barry and Harrison said at once.

They looked at each other.

"I'm from the past or an alternate past," Harrison explained quickly. "You know it's all very confusing."

"And I'm supposed to do it in the future," Barry told Eddie.

"Excuse me?" Eddie asked, confused.

"One of the two speedsters in Barry's house that night was Barry from the future," Cisco debriefed him. "Which means, one day in the future Barry will travel back in time to that night."

"Okay," Eddie nodded.

"Actually, that's not the only time-travel I've done—will do—anyway, I kind of already time-traveled. By accident."

"What?" Joe asked.

"I was running to try and stop a tsunami from destroying the city—"

"When was this?" Caitlin asked incredulously.

"A few weeks ago," he replied. He then pointed to Cisco. "Right before you started having those dreams."

"Oh, you mean the ones where Wells uses his super speeding hand to crush my heart?" he looked at Harrison as he said so.

"Why are you looking at _me_?"

"You have the same face," the young man proffered, raising his hands.

"If it makes you feel any better, I wouldn't be able to crush your heart via super-speeding hand," Harrison said. "I would just create an energy waves that would essentially punch a hole through your chest."

Then, he mentally added the Killing Curse, though he would never actually use said curse himself, even on criminals.

"Anyway," Barry interrupted. "What if these dreams Cisco is getting aren't actually dreams?"

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked.

"I mean, what if they're memories?" Barry asked.

"I'm not following," Joe muttered.

"Okay, what if that day Cisco found out that the Reverse Flash is Wells, and Wells killed him, but when I ran back a day I changed the timeline so that event never happened?"

"If it never happened, then how come Cisco can remember it?"

"It is still embedded in the back of his mind, even though it was rewritten," Harrison said. "Or at least that's my theory. I've had experiences with my memory being wiped, but if said memory is especially traumatizing or eventful, then small triggers will recall that memory."

As he spoke, Cisco hung onto his every word while Joe sat back in his chair, looking at him curiously. Eddie's eyes were glazed over and Barry was staring into the distance with his hand on his chin.

"So, if you say something about the Reverse Flash, Cisco gets memories of finding out who the Reverse Flash is," Harrison continued. "For me, when Wells wiped my memory, whenever someone would say something similar, it would recall the similar phrase."

"That sounds a lot like what's been happening to me," Cisco nodded.

Harrison made an indication as if to say, "There you go."

"Guys," Barry suddenly said. "I think I have a bad idea."

They all looked at him expectantly.

"We have to access Cisco's memories somehow. I think the subconscious is the key."

"They key to what now?" Joe asked.

"Getting my dad out of prison," Barry replied.

"And how are we going to do that?" Caitlin asked.

"We're gonna get Wells to confess to killing my mom."

…

Harrison walked into the cortex to see the trio already sitting around a table that housed an odd looking pair of sunglasses, which were being tampered by Cisco. How was it that Harrison lived in the building, yet seemed to miss half of what was going on?

"So this will allow Cisco to look into his dreams?"

"I got the idea from an article on lucid dreaming therapy," Caitlin replied. "They think it can be used to help people from post-traumatic stress disorder."

"Traumatized," Cisco muttered, "stressed. Check and check."

"The theory is it will allow people to enter their dreams and face their fears," Caitlin explained further. "Still working on the talking part."

"You would need to access both the middle brain and the higher brain at the same time," Harrison told them. "Then we would just need to find the right frequency for the language center."

"Are you sure this thing won't mess with my head?" Cisco asked.

"The amount of electricity required to trigger lucid dreaming is harmless," Caitlin said before making a face. "Probably."

"Who's going to be lucid dreaming?"

All four resisted the urge to jump and turned to look at the other Wells, trying to look like they weren't plotting against him. Dr. Wells rolled forward in his wheelchair.

"We just thought—that with all the metahumans running around, people have been seeing strange things," Caitlin said. "Things that they don't understand. And it's just really a matter of time before psychological issues start popping up."

"And lucid dreaming will help the doctors understand what their patient is struggling with," Wells said, pulling to a stop in front of the screen. "Intriguing. Of course you still need to guide the patient from the outside, correct?"

"Yes, we were thinking of finding a frequency to activate both the middle and higher functions of the brain," Harrison said.

Wells nodded.

"I would try a frequency of 45 hertz to start," he suggested.

"Thank you, Dr. Wells," Caitlin mumbled, trying to smile.

"Well," the man replied, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the room. "You never cease to amaze me, Caitlin."

And he rode out of the room. The other four looked at each other.

"I don't understand," Harrison muttered. "He's so… _helpful_."

Barry rubbed his head, walking to the doorway.

"I need to get to work," he murmured.

…

"Can we go over this one more time?" Cisco asked as they stood in Barry's lab at the CCPD.

"Yes," Caitlin nearly laughed. "You put the glasses on, fall asleep, and start dreaming. Not that hard."

"Yeah, except I'm pretty sure I die in the dream," Cisco muttered. "If I go back into it, am I going to die in real life? I mean, what are we talking about here? Is this _Inception_ or _Dream Scheme_?"

"Here, drink this," Joe told him, handing him a glass of milk.

Cisco took it and looked at it.

"What, am I five?"

"Just drink it," Joe sighed.

The long-haired young man flipped his head back and drained the glass in one go. "Okay," he said, sitting on the table in the middle of the room. He shook his head, making a few noises as he tucked his hair behind his ears and laying down all the way.

"You're going to be fine, Cisco," Harrison said.

As Caitlin slid the glasses onto his face, she said, "These glasses are emitting a low delta wave, which should help you fall asleep."

"All right," Cisco said, sounding skeptical, "but I'm just going to warn you, usually it takes me a—long time—to fall asleep…not that I'm an…insomniac or any—"

And his voice drifted off as his head lolled to the side and he was knocked out cold.

"Ah," Joe said with a smile. "So _that's_ how you get him to shut up."

"He's entering REM," Caitlin told them, looking at the computer that monitored Cisco's brainwaves. "It's working."

"Cisco," Barry said after a short laugh. "Can you hear me? You're dreaming, bud."

"Whoa," Cisco breathed. He laughed. "Guys? This is mad freaky."

"Okay—well—um, where are you?" Barry asked.

"I'm in the cortex…" the dreaming man said slowly. "I mean, I know I'm just dreaming that I'm in the cortex, but it feels so real…"

"What is dream-you doing?"

"Caitlin just left…" he mumbled. "I asked her to take Wells to Jitters."

"Why—why do you want Wells out of the lab?"

"I think he tampered with my work." As Cisco said this, the others looked at each other. "I need to check. Okay. Okay, I'm walking to the bunker…" he trailed off and then said, "Man I loved this shirt. I though the dryer ate it."

Joe laughed.

"Cisco focus," Barry told him.

"Okay, okay," Cisco said quickly. "All right, now I'm running tests on the containment system. This data…It doesn't make any sense…All the super capacitors—they were all still fully charged. There's absolutely no reason that the man in yellow should have escaped…" He was silent for a second. "Oh my God. It was just a hologram. He tricked us." Then, he physically jumped in his sleep. "Oh, no, Wells is here."

"Cisco, it's just a dream," Caitlin said, rubbing his arm in an attempt to comfort him. "He can't hurt you."

"You better be right about that!" he exclaimed. As the dream continued he was silent. Then, he muttered, "Eobard Thawne?"

"Thawne?" Joe asked. "Like Eddie?"

"You killed Nora Allen," Cisco accused the figure in his dream—most likely Wells.

"Wait, Nora?" Barry asked, leaning forward. "What about my mom?"

"He's confessing."

"Cisco?" Barry asked.

"He didn't want to kill her," the long-haired man told them. "It _was_ you, Barry. He wanted to kill _you_."

Behind them was a frantic beeping noise.

"His blood pressure two hundred and his heart rate is one-forty-seven," Caitlin breathed. "Guys, he's losing higher brain function."

If he lost higher brain function, they wouldn't be able to talk to him, Harrison realized. They wouldn't be able to tell Cisco that it was just a dream. He could die of fright.

"Cisco, listen to me," Harrison said softly. "Everything is all right. That's not me. It's just a dream. Everything is all right."

"His hand—it's vibrating—he's going to k-kill me!" Cisco said frantically.

"He's gonna have a stroke," Caitlin told them.

"Get him out of there!" Barry exclaimed.

"Help me!" Cisco exclaimed. "Help me, _please_."

"Cait—" Barry started.

" _NO!_ " the dreaming man shouted.

Then, he sat up gasping, panting, and he ripped off the glasses.

"You're okay," Caitlin said. "It was just a dream. You're okay."

Cisco continued to pant and he held his shaking hands up to his face.

"Oh, God," he said. "It felt so real."

Joe looked over to where Barry was sitting, staring at the ground.

"Barry?" he asked.

"My mom," the young man muttered. "This was my fault."

His phone was buzzing. He pulled it out and looked at it with trepidation. Then, he answered it and said, "Hello?"

Harrison and Caitlin were hovering over Cisco as Barry stood by the doorway on his phone. Then, he turned around to face them as he asked, "Dr. Wells?" The other four looked up at him instantly. "Yeah, sorry, it's a bad connection right now." Harrison continued to watch him with worry. "W-why? What's going on?" Barry pulled the phone off his ear and put it on speaker. "A fire, where?"

" _Off of New Brighton_ ," came Wells' voice. " _Bradford Tower High Rise._ "

"I know that building," Joe said. "That's where Captain Singh's fiancée works."

"On my way," Barry said, disappearing in a gust of wind.

Harrison pointed to the doorway.

"Should I go too?" he asked.

Joe shrugged.

"Dr. Wells would probably not want you there, though," Cisco muttered.

"Then I'll go," Harrison said with a firm nod, turning on his heel and disapparating.

A few seconds later he reappeared in the building, surrounded by fire. He stuck out his hand and cast a spell that should summon water. A bit of water came out and promptly evaporated. Desperate, he whipped out his wand and cried, " _Aguamenti_!"

A spurt of water burst forth, eating up a bit of fire before it too fizzled out.

"It's too much!" he shouted.

"Dr. Wells, what do we do?" Barry suddenly shouted.

" _You need to get everybody out of there!_ "

Harrison nodded to Barry and apparated over behind the fire, grabbed a few people, and disappeared. The sudden influx of oxygen at the lack of his presence made the fire expand. Barry began to panic.

"Harrison!" he shouted. "You can't do that again! It only makes the fire worse!"

" _All right_ ," the Midnight Phantom said over the com system. _"I'll keep the building clear_."

"I can't save them all!" Barry then shouted.

" _If you move your arms fast enough, you should create a wind funnel that sucks the air right out of the room_ ," the elder Wells said.

Barry attempted it and stopped at the fire exploded, raging worse.

"It's not working!" he cried.

" _Barry, listen to me_ ," Wells said. " _You need to move your arms faster! I believe in you, Barry._ "

Harrison watched from the road below as all of the fire that had sprung out of the windows disappeared, leaving a smoking building behind. Then, he returned to the tower to take people down as the Flash did the same and the fire-fighters ran inside to make sure the fire was gone.

…

That night, Harrison laid in his bed, floating his pen in his hand. He had pulled his wand out in that room, something he had not done since he had agreed to no longer use magic the day he left the Wizarding World. He had panicked, and now Barry knew about the wand.

Was that a bad thing?

They all considered him a metahuman. If word got out about him using a wand, would people think of him differently? Surely not. There was no longer a Statute of Secrecy. Even if there was, people would contribute strange happenings to metahumans—not the Wizarding World. Harrison caught the pen in his hand.

He was still very confused. The young man didn't know where he truly was, how he got there, what was going on, or how to return home. Even if he did return home, was it truly worth it? Here, he could use magic in broad day light and no one would question it. There, he would not be allowed to practice his wandless magic—as it was before. Of course, Harrison had still practiced, but he had to travel to obscure locations in the magical world to do so.

Here, he could have a family if he wanted. But Tess was the only person he wanted a family with and she was not here. And he was not sure if he wanted to drag her with him. She wouldn't be happy in a place where she was considered dead—neither of them would have a future. They would never get the chance to create STAR Labs—it would already be invented for them.

Harrison sighed. He wished this wasn't so hard. The young man rolled over and his eyes drifted shut as his thoughts continued to roam in circles.

…

"So Wells set up a fake showdown with a fake opponent who was never really there?" Eddie asked incredulously.

"He figured if we saw both of them together, it would prove he wasn't the man in yellow," Barry explained.

"This all just keeps getting crazier and crazier," Eddie muttered.

Cisco turned off the hologram of the Reverse Flash as the elevator opened and Caitlin walked in.

"I just talked to Dr. Wells," she told them. "He's attending a lecture downtown—won't be back until five."

"All right, Cisco, when he gets here you need to be working on the trap so he sees you set of the hologram," Barry told the shorter man, who nodded.

"Hold on," Joe said. "Isn't that when, in your dream everything went—"

He waved his hand in circles.

"' _Kali Maaaa', Temple of Doom_ , yeah," Cisco finished for him. "That definitely happened. But this time I'm ready for him." He walked over to the contraption in the center of the room. "I originally designed this force-field to keep a speedster from getting out. Now it won't let one in."

He pressed a button and waved a finger at Barry as if to say, "Come at me."

The speedster did as he indicated, backing up and running at the force-field with all of his might. The others back out of the way and jumped as Barry got propelled into the nearest still object.

"Barry, are you okay?" Caitlin asked worriedly.

"Yeah," he said as Joe helped him to his feet. "It works."

"Okay, as long as I'm in here, Wells won't be able to get near me," Cisco said firmly.

"And I will be in the cortex, recording everything that happens," Caitlin added.

"I will be standing by in here," Harrison said. "Just in case something goes wrong."

"And as soon as we get the confession needed, I'm moving in," Barry finished.

"So what do I do?" Eddie asked.

"Wells also threatened Iris," Joe said. "You need to keep her safe."

"I'll always keep Iris safe, Joe," Eddie muttered in what resembled a bitter tone, walking away. Barry and Joe shared a look.

"What?" Joe asked.

"Come here," Barry muttered and they walked out as wells.

Harrison threw his arms around both Caitlin and Cisco's shoulders and he said, "It's almost over."

"Then we can focus on getting you home," Caitlin smiled.

Harrison smiled back.

…

" _Here he comes_."

Harrison twitched at the sound of Caitlin's voice. He and the police force with him were hiding behind different objects in the room. As a precaution, he had cast disillusionment charms on them and silencing charms. Cisco walked forward and messed with the control panel of the force-field, causing a hologram of the Reverse Flash to appear.

Not long after, the elevator opened. Dr. Wells stood there. The only thing that distinguished him from his younger self in that moment was the cat-like grin and the fact that his glasses were black-rimmed while Harrison's were clear. It was oddly creepy.

As the hologram disappeared, Cisco turned around.

"Hello, Cisco," Wells said, taking off his glasses.

With a grave face, the young man looked at him. As he stepped forward, Wells began to clap slowly, the grin never leaving his face.

"You've been busy," he said with a laugh. "You really are incredibly clever, Cisco. I've always said it."

Cisco didn't smile. In fact, he looked ready to cry as he said, "You're him. The Reverse Flash. Joe was right this whole time, wasn't he?"

"Good old Joe." Wells walked over to the desk and closed the laptop there with a snap. "Joe West had his doubts all along. Even from that first night in the hospital Joe knew something wasn't right." Beside Harrison he could feel Joe stir. "Cops. As inconvenient now as they will be in a hundred years."

Harrison was glad he had put a silencing spell around them as Barry whispered, "Come on, Cisco, we need a confession."

"You killed Barry's mother," Cisco stated. "I want to know why."

"It was never my intention to kill Nora," Wells said. "But from my perspective, she was already dead. It just happened sooner than it was supposed to."

He raised his hand, walking forward. Cisco backed up slowly.

"No," Joe muttered. "That's not an admission."

Cisco fell over as his legs hit the force-field and scuttled back into safety.

"Oops," Wells smiled, his hand still raised.

"You're not going to get away with this," Cisco said, getting to his feet and pulling out the button.

"I'm not going to get away with it?"

The young man pressed the button and the force-field appeared. Wells laughed. And drop his hand. "Oh, you're smart," he said with a smile. He raised his eyebrow and, stepping forward onto the platform _through_ the force-field, he said, "But you're not that smart."

As he raised his hand again, Joe stood up from behind the machinery they were hunched behind and fire three rounds from his gun.

"No!" Barry cried. As he red forward with a streak of yellow, Harrison threw out his hand, stopping the bullets. "We didn't get a confession!"

The disillusionment melted away as Harrison rushed forward, using magic to restrain Wells. He fell to the ground, stunned.

"That was our only chance," Harrison stated.

They all looked at each other. Caitlin ran into the room, stepping up onto the platform.

"Cisco, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he breathed. "I'm never ever going to be able to sleep again, but yeah, I'm okay."

"Wake him up," Barry said, looking at Wells. Harrison looked at him in surprise. "Wake him up! If he won't confess on his own, I'll make him."

"Barry, think about this," Harrison said. "I know he's you're mom's killer, but what are you going to do to make him confess? Torture him?"

Barry stopped and looked down.

"We'll figure this out," Harrison said.

Then, a voice interrupted them all.

" _I told you all this before. I'm always one step ahead of you, Flash_." It was Wells. " _Allow me to introduce to Mr. Hannibal Bates and his incredible ability to transform into any person he touches._ " They all looked at the Wells lying on the floor. " _I knew that ability would come in handy._ _I did not realize, however, it would come in handy this soon!_ " He was laughing. Harrison glanced at Barry's face, catching glimpse of his stony expression.

"You used him! Like you used all of us!" Barry shouted. "Joe could have killed him!"

" _He served a purpose. Didn't take much convincing. Just the promise of his freedom._ "

"You ruined my life," Barry continued to shout. "All of our lives!"

It was like all the feelings he had bottled up while trying to not reveal they were onto Wells were coming spilling out.

"We stood by you," Caitlin joined in, "after everything that happened!"

" _I can see how difficult this must be for you to understand, but trust me your lives now are so much better because of what I have done for you._ "

"You don't have to hide from us anymore," Joe said. "We know you're not Harrison Wells. Just tell us who you are!"

" _A confession will get you nowhere_. _You've seen who I am. You know what I can do._ "

"You want to kill me, go ahead," Barry challenged. "I'm not going to fight you."

" _I don't want to kill you_ ," the man laughed. " _I need you, Barry. And…I also did not anticipate, as difficult as the past fifteen years have been for me, how much I would come to love working with you. With all of you. And yet, that does not change what needs to happen_."

Barry's face screwed up in pure fury. "Then face me now!"

" _Oh, we will face each other again. I promise you. Soon_ ," Wells said. _"Very, very soon._ "

Cisco's phone buzzed. The young man glanced down at it and he said, "He's in the time vault!"

Both Harrison and Barry went to the time-vault. They both stopped at the sight of Dr. Wells' empty wheelchair. The case that had held the yellow suit was empty as well. Then, Barry looked up at the screen on the far wall that showed hundreds of different surveillance cameras placed at different places—Barry's lab, different rooms in STAR Labs, CCPN, Joe's house, Eddie and Iris's house…He had been watching everything. He had known all along and had been playing as dumb as they were.

"It was all a setup," Barry breathed. "We thought we were setting a trap for him, but he set a trap for us." He stared up at the screen. "Oh my God. Iris."

He ran out of the room. Harrison went to the cortex to find Barry there, telling them all to find a location on Iris. Joe called her. Barry ran out. The call went to voicemail. Cisco searched on the computer, trying to find Iris.

"I've got a location!" he said into the com-system. "She on the bridge in Central City Park."

" _I'm too late!"_ Barry cried. _"I can see him_!"

"Barry!" Joe shouted into the microphone. "Barry, does he have her?"

There was no response.

Then, he shouted, " _No! He took Eddie_."

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Flash**

* * *

 **Chapter Sixteen:**

It felt unreal. It had been at least a week since they had found out that he had actually been killed and replaced by some unknown man in this time stream—one that hopefully was not in Harrison's own future—and it still did not feel real. STAR Labs was left in a state of limbo after the imposter Wells left until they got reports of gold robberies and life picked up from there.

Barry and Harrison had both gone after the thief. While Harrison was securing the gold, Barry faced the thief and became disoriented. They both returned to STAR Labs and pulled their hoods off. While Barry sat on the bed in the med-bay and Caitlin checked him out, he muttered, "When Rainbow Raider got inside my head, all I felt was anger, but this was not that. This was overwhelming fear."

"Mmn," Cisco muttered moving over to a computer. "Looks like when you went down the thief got disoriented too."

"Maybe we both got whammied," Barry suggested.

Harrison nodded. They were interrupted by the sound of Iris's voice behind them, "Then you know how it feels."

All of them turned around and stared at her like deer caught in the headlights of a car. Barry was sitting there unmasked with his suit on—as was Harrison. "Hi Barry. Or should I say the Flash?" She stopped as her eyes caught on Harrison. "Aren't you paralyzed?" Iris paused. "You know what? I don't want to know. I want to talk to Barry—alone."

So Barry had to explain how he was the Flash; who all knew that he was the Flash; who the Reverse Flash was; which also led to them explaining to her that there were two Harrison Wells in the city and one of them was only some guy pretending to be Wells, who was actually dead—that statement only confused Iris more.

By the time they were completely done explaining everything they had figured out, Harrison began to think that it would have been easier to simply have let her know from the beginning about everything—she was entirely trustworthy, even if she was a little self-centered, and she had almost gotten herself killed several times already from trying to figure these things out.

Then things got wackier—they caught the thief and brought him in, only to realize that it was General Eiling. He was in some strange sort of trance. After interrogating him, they found out he was being possessed by a psychic gorilla named Grodd.

And went after said psychic gorilla.

Finally, that whole adventure was over and they were able to focus on Wells again, which led to—

"I kept asking myself, 'Why would Wells pretend to need a wheelchair?'" Cisco told them, spinning Well's wheelchair around with his hand.

"Sympathy, I suppose," Caitlin replied.

"That's what I thought at first," Cisco said. "But he's the Man in Yellow—the Reverse Flash. He's way smarter than that."

"Misdirection," Joe suggested. "People would least expect him to be a speedster if he was paralyzed."

"Exactly," Cisco said. "So then I started messing around with the chair, and that's when I found this—" he flipped the chair over on its side and slid a compartment door to the side to reveal a circular object that was glowing yellow and blue.

Joe made an exclamation of surprise and said, "You can't get that at Radio Shack."

Barry bent down at looked at the pulsing object, saying, "It looks like the tech inside Gideon."

"I measured the output and this thing is kicking off some serious juice," Cisco told them. "I mean, we're talking enough to power all of Central City."

"Seriously?" Joe asked.

"Oh yeah."

"He must have been charging himself," Harrison muttered.

"That's the conclusion I came to," Cisco nodded.

"So, what, he's making himself go faster?" Harrison mused. "But—no, that's what tachyons do and we already know he took those from Tina. He's got to be using it for something else."

"You don't think—" Cisco said, and then cutting off as he continued to think. "You don't think he's using it to power himself completely, do you? Maybe he can't run fast without it."

Harrison nodded.

A computer began beeping. Cisco ran over to check on it and told them, "The accelerator's been reactivated."

"That's impossible!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"It must have been rebuilt," Cisco realized.

"Wells," Barry surmised.

"Even if he rebuilt it, how did Dr. Wells turn it on?" Caitlin asked.

"He's inside the building," Harrison muttered quietly.

Barry looked ready to smack himself.

"That's why I couldn't find him anywhere," Barry said. "He's been inside STAR Labs the whole time!"

The four men began heading out of the cortex. Cisco grabbed his soda that was sitting on the desk. As he ripped the lid off he told Caitlin, "Stay here," and ran out. Joe, Cisco, Barry, and Harrison skidded to a stop outside the pipeline. Joe glanced at Cisco.

"Why'd you bring that orange soda?" he asked with a tone of exasperation.

"Whenever things happen with the Reverse Flash, liquid floats," the young man explained. "Like Barry's fish tank, Dr. Wells' champagne, Harrison's coffee—you remember that. If this does the same thing, we'll know that Wells is in there."

They stood there, facing the door to the pipeline.

"Do it," Barry muttered.

Cisco took a deep breath, reached over, and opened the door. He clutched his cup of orange soda to his chest. As Joe edged forward, Harrison glanced over at the soda—it was rising into the air.

"Great," he muttered.

"Guys?" Cisco asked.

Joe and Barry were into the walkway of the pipeline by then, and Joe breathed, "Man. This is huge."

The ceiling, lined with pale white lights, was at least two stories above them. Lining the curved wall were anti-matter chambers—containment cells for metahumans. A pathway stretched over the middle towards the other side of the pipeline. Below it, the ground dropped down about ten feet. They all jumped as a flash of red came towards them from one side of the pipeline. They jumped out of the way as it sped past.

Cisco dropped the cup and his hands spread along the walls. In another heartbeat, a streak of yellow joined the red and Joe shouted, "Barry!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do we do now?" Cisco asked, looking at Harrison.

He was about to say something, but a mechanical voice interrupted him—" _Prisoner release protocol initiated._ "

One of the anti-matter cells was floating towards the walkway. It came to a rest and the door opened. Out stepped one of the multiple metahumans they had stored in the pipeline—this was a girl named Shawna who could teleport to anywhere she could see.

She teleported behind them, shoved them off the walkway before they had enough time to think, and shot the door's controls. As it slid shut, Joe shouted, "No!"

Harrison rolled onto his back, lying on the ground of the pipeline in pain. Then, with a grunt he sat up and grabbed Joe and Cisco. Holding their arms, he apparated up to the door.

"How do we get it open now?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," Cisco muttered. "She shot the controls to this side. Only someone on the other side can open it now."

"I could try," Harrison suggested.

He tried an unlocking charm. Since it was broken—no longer a lock to unlock—it did not work. Then, the wizard tried to levitate the door open but it was too heavy. Angry, Harrison slammed a hand onto it, pushing all his magic onto it. He was propelled backwards down the path.

"It's not going to work," he muttered.

The three sat down.

"Any other way out of the pipeline?" Joe asked.

"Nope," Cisco replied. "If there was, then FIRESTORM wouldn't have existed."

Joe breathed out. Then, there was a noise and the door opened. They hopped to their feet to see Iris and Caitlin standing there, holding an unconscious metahuman.

"Iris knocked her out," Caitlin said.

"Are you okay?" Cisco asked as they put the metahuman back in her cell.

"Yeah," Caitlin replied. "Thanks to Iris. I'm glad you showed up."

Iris smiled at her.

"How do you think she got out of there?" Iris asked.

"Wells must have released her," Cisco replied.

"Wait a sec," Joe said, holding up a hand to silence them. "Did you hear that?"

They all looked at each other.

"I checked all the containment cells," Caitlin said. "Everyone's accounted for."

"No, no, listen," Joe refuted, holding out his hand.

Harrison listened and, sure enough, he could hear a small "Help!" Someone in the pipeline was calling to them. "Down here!"

They walked onto the walkway and followed the shouts as they grew louder and louder. They climbed down a ladder to the floor of the pipeline and came to a stop as the voice was even louder—it was Eddie's. As Harrison stepped on a panel, there was a loud thud. He looked back at the others.

"A trapdoor," he said.

He spread out his hands and the trapdoor flew off, setting itself against the wall. Going down into the darkness was a ladder. The five of them set to climbing down the ladder. As they did so, Eddie called out, "Help!" again. It was quieter, as though he was running out of energy to shout. There was a cough.

"Eddie?" Joe asked, stepping down onto the ground and turning on a flashlight. His light stopped on a hunched figure. He ran over. "Oh, partner. I got you."

Eddie sat with his back to the door, his hands tied to the chair. Joe went about cutting the ropes with his pocket knife. Iris ran over and said, "Oh, Eddie, are you okay?"

"Let's get him out of here," Joe said, grabbing his partner's arm and pulling it over his own shoulder. Iris grabbed Eddie's other side and helped him up with her father.

Joe let go at the ladder and said, "Here we go. Go up slow."

Eddie didn't need to be told twice. He slowly made his way up the ladder. Then, Joe went up the ladder after him, followed by Cisco. Harrison glanced over as Iris was picking up a small blue box with her mouth hanging open. He turned back to the ladder and followed the others. Once they were all back up in the pipeline, Harrison closed the trapdoor.

…

"You're vitals are normal, you're just a little dehydrated," Caitlin told Eddie. "The IV should help with that, but drink lots of fluids and stay off your feet. Okay, Eddie?"

"Thanks Caitlin," the man replied with a smile.

There was a flash and Barry appeared, panting and saying, "Wells got away. He was too fast. He's always too fast." He looked up to see Eddie sitting there. "Eddie?"

"We found him under that hatch in the pipeline," Cisco explained.

Barry walked forward.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I thought I looked everywhere for you!"

"It's all right," Eddie mumbled. "It's not your fault. Sometimes you just can't see the clues, even if their right in front of you."

He glanced between Barry and Iris.

"Well, all that's important is that we're all safe," Iris said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "And back together, right?"

He smiled and let out a sigh.

"Eddie, why'd he take you?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," Eddie muttered. "He said that we're—family. Said his real name was Eobard Thawne."

"Like in my dream," Cisco murmured.

"Did he say anything else?" Joe asked. "I mean, anything that could help us figure out what he's after?"

"He didn't say much. Just kept working on some tube."

"A tube?" Cisco asked. "What did it look like?"

"Metallic and futuristic," Eddie replied. "He said it was the key to getting back everything that was taken from him."

"W-what?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I don't understand," Eddie said. "I just want to go home. Is that okay?"

"Yes," Caitlin replied, taking off the IV.

"I'll make sure he gets some rest," Iris assured them, helping the detective out of the room.

"What do you think Wells was talking about?" Barry asked.

Harrison shrugged. Another alarm started going off, which Cisco checked. Then, he ran off.

"Hm," Harrison muttered.

"What _now_?" Barry asked.

A video popped up on screen, showing Cisco. He tilted the camera and to where it showed both him and some sort of tube that was glowing blue.

" _Um, are you seeing this_?" he asked. " _This is the tube Eddie was talking about. It's some sort of future power source. That's what's charging up the accelerator._ "

"Can you turn it off?" Barry asked.

" _Do you see a power button anywhere on this thing?_ " Cisco lowered the camera towards the object and said, _"This thing is from the_ future _. It's beyond me. If I press or touch or cut the wrong thing, this whole building could go down_."

"Okay, how long until it's fully functional?" Barry asked.

"Best I can tell," Cisco replied. "Thirty-six hours?"

"That's when Wells will be back," Barry mused.

"Why would Wells want the particle accelerator on again?" Joe asked.

" _I don't know_ ," Cisco replied. _"It's not like it was such a big success last time_."

"It did create me," Barry told them.

"What was it supposed to do before?" Harrison asked.

Cisco shrugged. _"I don't know. I only helped build it. I don't think any of us knew what it was going to be used for._ "

Harrison shook his head ruefully.

…

"So what happens if the particle accelerator turns on while all the metahumans are inside?" Caitlin asked.

"They're toast," Cisco told her.

"We put them down there. Now their lives are in danger because of us."

Barry nodded.

"Look," Joe pointed out. "I think you all know I've disagreed with this idea from day one. I thought the whole plan was to rehabilitate them and set them free."

"It was," Caitlin said. "We've been a little busy."

"Well, if they stay in there they die and if we let them go they'll destroy the city," Cisco muttered.

"We're going to have to move them," Barry finally said.

"Move them where?" Joe asked. "I don't think Iron Heights is equipped to deal with them."

"No," Barry said, "but Lian Yu can."

"What on earth's a Lian Yu?"

"Lian Yu is the island where Oliver was stranded for five years. ARGUS built a covert military prison on it. Oliver keeps his worst criminals there. They won't be able to escape, and more importantly they won't be able to hurt anybody."

"Great," Joe retorted sarcastically. "So we're just sending them from one illegal black site to the next."

"Yeah, I guess so," Barry sighed leaning back.

"And how do we move them to Oliver's own private Alcatraz?"

"I think I have an idea," Harrison said, looking up.

…

"I called Lyla, Diggle's wife," Barry told them. "She hooked us up. Someone will meet us there and take the prisoners."

"We are a go," Harrison said.

The surveillance system showed each of the cells that contained the metahumans. They each began shouting and beating on their doors as a white gas was pumped into the units above their heads. Then, as the gas cleared, each metahuman was laying on the ground.

"It's done," Caitlin said. "They're all unconscious."

"And they should stay that way for at least an hour," Cisco said. "I'm sixty-two percent certain."

"All right," Harrison said. "Is it safe for me to go in?"

Caitlin nodded. One by one, Harrison opened the door to a cell, grabbed a metahuman, and disapparated. Finally, they ended up with six metahumans laying on the ground at Lian Yu.

"Thank you so much for letting us keep them here until we sort everything out…"

"Lyla," the woman said, shaking Harrison's hand.

Harrison looked around at the gray skies and the flat, colorless island.

"This place is sort of…bleak, isn't it?" he asked.

The woman laughed. Harrison watched as men took the metahumans away. Sure that they were well taken care of, Harrison left.

…

"I still don't like this," Joe muttered.

"Maybe when all of this is over we can fix Iron Heights up and empty out Lian Yu," Harrison suggested. Joe nodded.

"The accelerator is fully online," Cisco told them, looking at the image of the pipeline that was blinking red.

Harrison looked at the screen that showed one of the surveillance cameras outside of STAR Labs. There, his imposter was coming through the gate. He was grinning widely and he held up his hands in a gesture as if to say, "Come get me."

Barry turned and looked at Harrison. Harrison nodded to him.

"Barry you can't think of going out there," Joe said. Barry stared at the screen with a stony expression. "Bear, no."

"You can't go out alone," Caitlin pleaded.

"Yes, I can," he muttered, turning and running out of the room.

They watched as he appeared in the video, conversing with the other man.

"You've hurt enough people," Barry said.

"I know," the imposter Wells—Eobard Thawne—said. "You see me as the villain. But if you were to look back at everything I've done—every wheel I've set in motion—you would realize I have only done what I had to do. Nothing more, nothing less."

Harrison scoffed and muttered, "He's crazy."

"And the particle accelerator?" Barry asked. "How does that fit into your grand plan?"

"Well, why don't you go on inside? Let me show you."

"Oh, so I'm just supposed to trust the bad guy?"

"And yet, I've shown you time and time again, you can't beat me Barry."

Suddenly Barry turned and looked straight at the surveillance camera and gave a small nod. At the gesture, Harrison apparated to his side. "Wow!" Wells—Thawne—smiled. "You brought yourself a friend."

There was a roar of fire and FIRESTORM appeared, landing on Barry's other side. Not long after, there was the ping of an object sliding through the air. An arrow pierced the side of a building, bearing a hooded man with a thick cord. The Arrow dropped down.

"Welcome Mr. Queen," Wel—Thawne—said.

"Hope we're not too late," Oliver said in a deep voice.

"You're just in time," Barry stated. Then, he called, "I don't care how fast you are! You can't fight all three of us at the same time."

"Oh, I can't?" Thawne asked. "Trust me. This? This is going to be fun."

He held out his left hand. A golden ring with the flash symbol on it began to glow on his middle finger. FIRESTORM ignited his hands. Both Barry and Harrison pulled on their masks. With red sparks, a yellow suit flew out of the ring and Eobard Thawne set off at a run. In a flash, he was wearing the suit and running forward. Barry ran to meet him and they chased each other in circles—all that was seen of them were the red and yellow streaks of electricity.

"Move, Barry!" Oliver called, his bow nocked and ready to shoot. "Barry, _move!_ "

Suddenly the circle of electricity broke as the Reverse Flash pinned Barry against the nearest wall. FIRESTORM flew into the air. Barry managed to throw the Reverse Flash back and the Arrow promptly shot him in the hip. Wells pulled the arrow out of his side. Ronnie reappeared, throwing a flame at the man in yellow. Wells rotated his arm so fast, it knocked FIRESTORM back. Barry ran after him.

Finally seeing an opening, Harrison ran forward and thrust out both hands. The Reverse Flash went flying. Oliver shot him with another arrow. As he pulled it out of his thigh, the Arrow said, "Nanites, curtesy of Ray Palmer. They're delivering a high, frequency pulse that's disabling your speed. You're not going to be running around for quite a while."

As he said this, the Reverse Flash slowly stopped vibrating and the red glow faded from his eyes. Still holding the arrow in his hand, he looked at Harrison.

"I always knew you would be a thorn in my side, Harrison Wells, with those powers of yours," he said. "Soon you will be dead—that's what awaits you back home. Perhaps this time you can save Tess."

With a yell, Harrison ran forward and swung out a fist. The man blocked it and raised up his other hand to fend off the Arrow, who was fighting with both his fist and the butt of his bow. The three men traded blows, and then the Arrow kicked the Reverse Flash in the chest, sending him flying through a traffic barrier.

Thawne grabbed a rod and jumped up, prepared to bash someone's head in with it. Harrison threw out his hand and the man flew back again. He began vibrating as he landed, his eyes glowing red once more. The next thing Harrison knew, he was pinned on the ground and his head was beginning to throb.

"You're too much trouble, Harrison," he growled. "I was going to wait and let my younger self kill you when you return home. Perhaps I'll just save him the trouble."

He lowered his vibrating hand slowly and Harrison swallowed, now realizing just why Cisco was so terrified of those dreams. Then, there was a streak of yellow and Barry dragged Eobard Thawne off of Harrison.

"That's the spirit," the Reverse Flash growled. "You can't stop me, Flash. And you never will."

He ran off, streaking up onto the roof of STAR Labs. Then, they ran back down and up the side of another building. Barry came to a stop and shouted, "Now!"

FIRESTORM flew up, shooting the Reverse Flash off of the roof of the building. He fell, a streak of red that stained the black sky. He landed on a car, crashing through the roof. Glass shattered around him. He slowly sat up, panting. Then there was the hiss of an arrow and his eyes stopped glowing instantly. He swayed, and then fell forward off of the car.

The four men walked over and looked at him.

"Thanks, fellas," Barry said. Oliver and Ronnie nodded. He smiled at the Arrow. "Nice haircut. And I see we've abandoned the traditional green."

"Try something different," Oliver muttered, shifting from one foot to the other. "Look, I might need a favor from you."

"Wherever, whenever," Barry replied with a smile.

Oliver nodded at him and walked off. Ronnie clapped the Flash on the shoulder, nodded at Harrison, and then ran off as well. The Flash walked over and looked down at the man in the yellow suit. He looked completely defenseless as he lay there, facedown, with an arrow sticking out of his back.

"I got you," Barry muttered.

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	17. Chapter 17

**I do not own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Seventeen:**

While Barry was in the pipeline interrogating Eobard Thawne, Harrison Wells sat on his bed in STAR Labs. The words Thawne had said to him kept haunting him—he had had a terrible night's sleep. After tossing and turning for hours, he had finally drifted off into a fitful sleep. Haunted by all different sorts of scenarios through the night, he kept waking back up only to sigh and roll back over.

That morning he stared off into space with tired eyes.

" _Soon you will be dead—that's what awaits you back home. Perhaps this time you can save Tess_."

If it was true and only death awaited him, why return home? Tess would be safer off without him. If he was not there to kill, Eobard Thawne would have no reason to attack the both of them—the crash that resulted in Tess's death. Perhaps the _means_ of his saving Tess's life meant not returning to his own time.

"You all right, man?" Harrison looked up to see Cisco standing in the doorway.

"Yeah," he muttered, rubbing his hand down his face. "It's just…something Thawne said."

"The evil man who supposedly kills you?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah," Harrison sighed. He fluffed up his hair absentmindedly. "Let's go."

Cisco followed him up to the cortex, where the others were gathered. Joe looked up at Harrison and gave him a nod as he sat down. They were silent; there was nothing that needed to be said. Joe and Cisco watched the surveillance of Barry talking to Thawne. Not much later, Barry wandered up to the cortex and told them about his conversation with the Reverse Flash—he had told them of a way to travel back in time to save his mother.

"A chance to travel back in time and right a wrong and save your mother's life," Stein breathed excitedly. "Quite the paradox Dr. Wells has presented you with, Mr. Allen."

"Can we just call him Thawne?" Harrison grouched. "It's not like he ever deserved my name."

"I apologize," Stein said softly, a look of pity in his eyes.

Continuing the previous conversation, Caitlin said, "A chance to be with someone you love? It seems pretty cut-and-dry to me."

She looked at Ronnie, who grabbed her hand.

"At first blush, Dr. Snow, it would appear so," the professor replied, "but this gift has unparalleled risk. Barry, the night your mother died, the night you saved yourself from being killed...that night altered the timeline you were already on and changed the course of history."

"So what you're saying is that we're living in a parallel universe?" Cisco surmised.

"Just like when I time traveled before," Barry confirmed.

"But he only travelled one day that time," Joe realized.

"Exactly," Stein said. "Now imagine fifteen years of compounded experiences. One different decision, no matter how big or small, impacts everything that follows. Moments upon moments, choices upon choices. New relationships. Nothing would be as it is today. And you would never know the difference because you would never remember any of it."

"So if I go back and save my mom," Barry breathed, "my dad would not go to prison. I would never live with Joe or Iris."

"You might never meet me," Cisco muttered. "Or Caitlin, or Ronnie."

"I may never die," Harrison realized.

"The truth is," Stein told him, "there's no real way of knowing what your life would be."

Barry looked at Joe, who shook his head.

"There's no choice here, Barry, you have to do this," the detective told him. "You gotta change the past."

With that, Joe picked up his coat and walked out of the room. Barry watched him leave. He glanced around at the others and followed his adopted father. Harrison watched him go, wondering what changing time would entail. If Barry really did rewrite time, then perhaps Harrison would never even get sent to the future. He would never even have to figure out a way home. Never have to worry about whether his girlfriend would live or die.

Would he, Harrison, even be the same person? What person would he become in the future? Harrison shook his head and he caught eyes with Professor Stein. Beside him, Caitlin grabbed Ronnie's arm and said, "Come on, I'm going to make sure everything checks out."

She pulled him into the med-bay, picking up a thermometer.

Behind them, Professor Stein wandered over to STAR Labs clear board and began scribbling on it. Harrison peered at the writing—he was filling out speed equations. While Caitlin and Ronnie were talking, Harrison remained in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. Cisco wandered over.

"Changing time," the long-haired young man muttered. "It's crazy isn't it? Before this year, I still considered that as something out of _Back to the Future_." He paused. "Do you really think Barry will do it?"

"I don't think he has much of a choice," Harrison replied. "Even if he doesn't, I'm sure Thawne will find ways to pressure him until he does. The weight of the unknown is very heavy."

Silence fell.

"You're speaking from experience, aren't you?" Cisco asked.

Harrison nodded.

"The pressure of whether I can get back and what I'll face there—it's the unknown. And sometimes I don't know what to do…Most of the time, I don't know what to do. What to think."

Cisco nodded.

"Well, maybe this will all be over soon," the tech-guy said.

"Hopefully," Harrison added.

…

They watched as Barry spoke to Thawne. As he opened the door to the pipeline, Thawne grinned and continued to eat the Big Belly Burger that they had given him.

" _Ah,_ " he said. " _I was wondering how long it would take you to decide. If it makes you feel any better, it took you a whole hour longer than I had anticipated."_

He licked his fingers.

" _So how does this work_?" Barry asked. " _Your grand plan?_ "

" _It's really not that grand at all, Barry, in fact it's rather simple. We use the particle accelerator._ "

" _The particle—"_ Barry cut off, laughing. " _The las time that happened, you caused an explosion that hurt a lot of people._ "

" _This time, the accelerator will operate exactly as it was meant to_ ," Thawne replied, holding his water in his hand. _"Except instead of two particles colliding at the speed of light in the inner ring, we're only going to inject one particle."_

" _And I'm what it collides with?_ "

" _And if you can go fast enough Barry. If you can hit that particle with enough speed, you will punch a whole right through the fabric of reality—creating a stable wormhole through which I can return home._ "

" _You said_ 'if _I run fast enough',_ " Barry noted. _"What happens if I don't?_ "

" _You die,_ " Thawne replied simply.

Harrison glanced over at Stein, who had been watching the video with fascination. He looked grave and excited all at once. Barry entered the cortex and Stein typed on the computer, pulling up an animated diagram of what the Reverse Flash had just told them.

"According to Thawne's calculations," he said, "Barry super-speeds inside the accelerator ring. Once he reaches he optimum speed, we inject a single hydrogen proton into the inner ring. Once the collision occurs, it will create a stable wormhole through which Barry can travel to the past, opening a gateway into time itself. At which point I will shout something along the lines of 'eureka' or 'excelsior', I'm currently uncommitted."

"What do you think?" Barry asked Cisco, walking forward.

The long-haired young man drew in a breath, not lifting his head off his hand, and said, "On the one hand it kind of makes sense. On the other, why? _Why_? Why would you _ever_ consider doing this?"

"You know why," Barry said quietly.

"So for this to actually work, how fast would Barry have to run?" Caitlin asked.

"By my estimates, Mach two at a minimum."

Barry looked around at the others.

"Mach two," he breathed. "All right. I can do it."

Mach two was very fast, but he had made it up to Mach three before. He took a deep breath.

"So what would happen if Barry didn't reach that speed?" Joe asked. "I'm imagining a bug hitting a windshield. How far off am I?"

"Not very," Stein replied.

"Let me worry how fast I have to go," Barry interrupted. "We all know I've made it that fast before."

They nodded, remembering the day they tried their failed attempt to send Harrison home. They had it entirely wrong, and Harrison realized that Wells—Thawne—had known the proper way the entire time and had simply not told them. Why? Did he not want to seem to know too much? Harrison supposed that they might get suspicious if he had magically known of a way a speedster could travel in time.

Barry turned back to Cisco and said, "We're gonna need something else, too."

"Really?" Cisco asked in a heavily sarcastic tone. "'Cause I don't know about everyone else, but I'm not at _all_ interested in helping you get yourself killed."

"I'm going to need you to build me a time machine," Barry replied. "A proper one this time."

Cisco's hand dropped.

"Go on," he said.

…

Cisco lead Ronnie, Barry, and Harrison into his personal workspace in the building. It was where he built all manner of things. There was a desk with computers on one side and the other had a long counter that held countless amounts of materials. There was even a dummy on the corner with an extra Flash mask.

"So if Thawne is as fast as you," Ronnie said as they walked into the room, "why does he need a time machine?"

"Apparently, he lost his speed when he killed my mom," Barry replied. "It comes and goes in spurts and he can't control it."

"So we were right," Harrison mused.

"He _does_ need his wheelchair to power himself!" Cisco finished triumphantly.

"So after I open the wormhole, he's going to need the ship to travel back to the future. He's been squirreling away the parts—"

"And now we just need to put them together," Cisco finished.

"I'm surprised you're not making some stupid movie reference," Harrison muttered.

"Do you want me to?" Cisco asked.

" _No_ ," Harrison replied curtly. His friend smiled.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think we should save the blueprints," Cisco then said.

Barry shook his head.

"Guys, we have a problem," Ronnie said, holding up two large blocks of metal. "These tiles are made out of tungsten."

"Well it does have the highest melting point of any element," Cisco said.

"No, Ronnie's right," Harrison muttered, taking the materials from him. "The dust it generates is flammable."

"The pressure exerted from the wormhole—" Ronnie added.

"Yeah, yeah it could cause a hole to be melted into the exterior. It could explode," Cisco finished, nodding.

"Any ideas?" Barry asked.

"Let me ask Dr. Evil," Cisco replied. "Which used to be a name that made me smile!"

He pointed a finger to a blank face he made to prove his point. The others shook their heads.

"Why don't we just leave the tungsten and let him die?" Harrison asked as he left the room. Barry and Ronnie both looked at him. "What? I'm just saying."

…

Harrison took a break from helping rebuild the time sphere—or whatever it was called. He went up to the cortex, where he found Professor Stein and Eddie. Eddie nodded to him and he returned the gesture, sitting in a chair beside him with a sigh.

"Crazy day, huh?" he asked the detective.

"Tell me about it," Eddie muttered. "I still haven't quite wrapped my mind around time travel yet."

"Don't worry," Harrison told him. "It still baffles the best of us."

They fell silent and Harrison watched Stein, who was fretting over something on his iPad. Then, he walked over to Eddie and asked, "May I use this station? It's the only one with enough power to run the proper calculations."

"Yeah," Eddie said, hopping up and grabbing his jacket. "I'm just in the way. I'll just leave."

"Well everyone has a contribution to make," the professor argued. "Perhaps you just haven't discovered yours yet."

"No," Eddie shook his head. "Dr. Wells—"

"Eobard Thawne," Harrison interrupted.

"Eobard," Eddie amended, "made it very clear when he told me about the future. I don't matter. As far as history's concerned, I don't save the day. Or get the girl."

"And you believed him?"

"He had a newspaper from the year 2024," Eddie protested.

"And I have a mug that says 'World's Best Boss'," Stein dissented. "I doubt my aid could attest to its authenticity." Eddie's eyes shifted and his eyebrows furrowed. "We're dealing with something here that no scientist could ever account for."

"And that is…?"

"Coincidence," Stein replied with a smile. "There's no science to coincidence. What are the odds that Eobard would travel back in time and get stuck in the exact same city as his great-great-great-grandfather? And part of his returning means that he has to preserve _your life_. You are like the wild card—you're the only person here that gets to decide his own fate. Or at least, that's my opinion."

"Plus," Harrison finally added. "If he's supposed to be some descendent of yours, and Iris is supposed to marry Barry, if you change the future—if you continue your plan to marry Iris, then not only are you proving the future wrong, but Eobard might never be born." Eddie stared at him. "Just a theory, of course."

Suddenly, Stein's calculations finished running. He looked at them and muttered, "Wait, that can't be right. Oh, dear." Harrison followed him back to the room where the others were. "We have a problem."

"What?" Barry asked, running over.

"The calculations—there is a danger."

"I know," the speedster replied, "and I'm willing to chance it."

"No, not just for you," Stein dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "There is also a risk for everyone. Eobard didn't tell us everything. Barry, even if you do reach the right speed, colliding with the hydrogen particle could result in the formation of a singularity."

"What's a singularity?" Caitlin asked slowly.

"It's a black hole," Cisco breathed.

"We could destroy Central City," Barry muttered.

"For starters," Stein agreed, "but if we cannot contain the singularity, it could grow and we could be facing—"

"A global catastrophe," Harrison breathed.

"So long and thanks for all the fish," Cisco muttered.

…

" _Well, sure, there's a bit of a risk_."

"I would hardly refer to possibly causing an extinction level event as 'a bit of a risk', _"_ Stein returned coldly.

"Yeah, and your accelerator has been about as reliable as the beater I drove in high school," Joe muttered.

Thawne laughed, " _Let me ask you a question. How many dangers, how many metahumans, have we faced this year_ together? _Or did you forget, that was me fighting alongside each and every one of you? I have been planning this for almost two decades. It will work._ "

"And how do we make sure we don't open a black hole on the middle of Central City?" Cisco asked.

" _So, once the wormhole stabilizes, Barry will have one minute and fifty-two seconds to alter the past and return to his own time. If and when he does that, you can close the wormhole and we can all live happily ever after. Almost two minutes. More than enough time to save your mother_."

"But not enough time to stop you from going home?" Barry asked.

Thawne spread his arms wide.

" _Everything's a choice_."

Barry nodded, "And what if I'm late?"

" _You won't be. I believe in you, Barry. I always have. So I guess the question is, do your friends believe in you as much as I do."_

Caitlin raised the remote and turned off the screen that played the video of Wells. Barry got up and stormed out, into the next room. Joe followed him to talk to him. The others looked at each other unsurely.

…

"Is this actually binding?" Ronnie asked.

All of them stood on the lawn outside STAR Labs. Professor Stein stood talking to Ronnie while Caitlin walked towards them—Barry, Cisco, Harrison, Eddie, Iris and Joe stood off to either side.

"My father made me become a rabbi while I was at MIT," Stein replied. "This will be 'legit' as the kids say."

"No kids say that," Ronnie muttered.

Harrison and Joe both bit back laughter as the professor said, "Let's not fight on our wedding day."

"Okay," Ronnie laughed.

By then, Caitlin had made it to Ronnie.

"If it's all right with you, I'm going to skip all of the Hebrew," Stein said, snapping the book shut. Caitlin laughed. "I learned a lot about merging one's life with another this past year. And yet for all the incredible events we've been party to, the mystery that brings two people together in love is still the province of magic. Mr. Ramon, the rings please."

Cisco ran forward from where he stood next to Eddie and Iris and knelt between Ronnie and Caitlin. He held out his hands, showing the rings. Iris took Caitlin's bouquet. As Ronnie and Caitlin both took each other's ring, Cisco backed away. The couple slid the rings onto each other's fingers.

"I owe you a real ring," Ronnie muttered.

"I don't need one," Caitlin smiled. "I have everything and everyone I could ever need right here. If all the events of this past year have led us to this moment, it was worth it. I love you Ronnie."

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," Stein said. "You may kiss the bride."

"Stop telling me what to do," Ronnie mumbled with a laugh, before leaning forward and kissing his wife. Behind them, Iris jumped in the air with excitement. Harrison joined in as the others began clapping.

…

Not even a few hours later, they all stood outside the door to the pipeline. Barry was wearing his flash suit, ready for the journey. He hugged Caitlin. When he pulled away, Cisco said, "There will be three you's back there. The you from the future, who save the younger you from the Reverse Flash, and now this you. Remember, wait until future you gets you out of there and then you can go and save your mom."

Barry nodded, "Piece of cake."

"May the speed force be with you," the long-haired young man said.

Barry turned around and clapped Joe on the shoulder, saying, "Goodbye, Dad."

Joe was nearly crying as the speedster hugged Iris and then turned away. Barry caught eyes with Harrison and they nodded at each other. Then, he turned and went into the pipeline. The door shut behind him. Cisco smacked his mouth and muttered, "That's got to be the most 'you's I've ever said in one sentence."

Stein stepped over to a microphone and said, "Remember Barry, you only have one minute and fifty-two seconds to save your mother and return. Or else—"

" _I know_ ," came Barry's voice.

The others ran up to the cortex where they saw the diagram of the accelerator that showed Barry running around in circles.

"The structural integrity of the accelerator is holding," Ronnie said.

The building shook.

"What was that?" Joe asked. "Is Barry okay?"

"Yeah," Cisco muttered, looking at the video of him running on the computer. "He just passed Mach two.

Stein reached for his coffee and stopped as he saw that the brown liquid inside was floating into the air.

"Inject the hydrogen particle now," he said.

A blue light appeared, moving in the opposite direction as Barry's red one. Then, they collided and there was a little noise.

"What was that? What happened?" Iris asked.

"Barry," Caitlin replied. "He's gone."

"Guys, look, the wormhole!" Cisco explained.

"And it's stable," Stein added. "Start the clock!"

Caitlin started the clock. It began to count down from one minute and fifty-two seconds.

"What, no exclamations of triumph?" Harrison asked sarcastically, turning to Stein with a smile.

Stein laughed and muttered, "I think it's time to say goodbye to Eobard Thawne."

The clock read fifty-eight seconds as they left the lab and went down into the pipeline. There, the time machine stood. Joe held his gun ready as the door to Thawne's cell opened and he ran out in his Reverse Flash suit.

"It's beautiful," Thawne noted, looking at the time machine. "Rip Hunter would be impressed. He built the first one of these. Interesting man."

There was a flash of light from the wormhole and a hat flew in, landing on the ground with a scrape. It was metal and had golden wings on the side.

"Now what the hell is that?" Joe asked, looking at the hat.

"That's my cue to leave," Thawne replied. He walked over to Cisco and said, "Thank you, Cisco."

"Don't ever come back," the young man muttered.

Thawne turned away and stepped into the time machine, sitting in the chair inside. He pressed a control and the door slid shut. They watched as the sphere lifted into the air and began to fly towards the wormhole.

" _Thirty seconds_ ," came Stein's voice.

"Home," Thawne whispered, staring ahead of him. He was smiling.

His smile fell and his face slackened with shock as a figure appeared, blocking out the light of the wormhole. As it grew bigger, they could see that it was Barry. He flew towards the time sphere with one fist stretched out. Then, he collided with the time machine, shattering it. Cisco, Joe, and Harrison flew backwards as Barry and Thawne both crashed down to the ground.

Harrison propped himself up on his elbows and looked at the wormhole—it was beginning to collapse. Over to one side, Barry rolled over with a groan. The Reverse Flash attempted to sit up and hissed, "You didn't save her. Why? _Why_?" The word he shouted, throwing a large shard of curved glass to the side. "You could have had everything you wanted!"

He got to his feet. As Barry got to his own feet, he panted, "I already do."

Thawne panted as well. He pulled his own hood over his head. As he did so, he began vibrating and his eyes glowed red. "Not for long," he growled.

The two ran at each other. As they fought, the wormhole disappeared. Then, the Reverse Flash slammed Barry against the wall and ripped the scarlet speedster's mask off.

"Just to be clear," he growled, "after I kill you, I'm going to kill them. And then I'm going to kill your father. I always win, Flash."

Harrison ran over just as he reared back to strike Barry in the heart. There was another flash of light. A ripple appeared—much like the wormhole that had just disappeared, only it was directly behind the Reverse Flash. A hand reached out of it, grabbed the man in yellow, and then it all disappeared and the room fell dark.

Barry slid to the ground, panting. The silence was so absolute, it seemed to suffocate them. Then, the wormhole reappeared where it had been before, rising into the air and swirling with white energy—it was completely unstable. As it rose, it grew and broke through the bridge above them, sucking in the debris.

"Guys that's not good!" Cisco shouted.

"We've got to get out of here!" Harrison shouted.

They all began to run as the wormhole continued to suck up debris. Outside, everyone looked up at the sky. The black-hole (for that's what it certainly was; by then it was a swirling mass of black and blue) was beginning to tear the building apart.

"So that's what we didn't want to happen!" Cisco shouted.

"What's it doing?" Caitlin cried.

"It's feeding," Stein replied. "The singularity won't stop. Not even after the earth is gone." As the wormhole began to break off entire chunks of buildings, screams arose in the distance. "I'm afraid the accretion disk is already assembled."

" _What_?" Joe asked.

"Diffused material that's in orbital motion around the singularity," Stein shouted.

"What does that mean?" Joe asked.

"We have to disrupt the motion!" Barry yelled. "Basically, it's just like the tornado only upside down and bigger! And scarier…"

Stein stepped up behind him, "Barry, that event has an energy level of at least 6.7 teraelectron-volts. It cannot be stopped!"

Barry looked at him. "I have to try."

He looked over and nodded at Caitlin before pulling his hood down over his eyes and running forward. Flying from one piece of debris to another, the yellow streak rose into the sky and circled around and around in the eye of the black hole.

Harrison searched through his mental catalogue of spells, trying to find one that could help. Throwing caution to the winds, the whipped out his wand and shouted as hard as he could, "Protega maxima! Repello immicum! _Fianto Duri!_ "

"Oh my God!" Cisco shouted, pointing a shaking finger at the wizard. "You're—you're—"

A stream of light shot from Harrison's wand, blooming out and up. As he continued to chant those three spells, the shield grew and grew until it encompassed the entire city. The enormous shield charm worked—it kept the black hole from destroying any more. Already, the debris that hadn't quite made it inside was raining down on the city. However, it would only hold as long as Harrison could concentrate on it, and he knew he could not make one large enough to encompass the entire earth—that would take thousands, if not _millions_ , of wizards to accomplish. Their fate still rested with Barry and his ability to stop the black hole.

…

Transmutation reappeared in the Wizarding World with a flash of light. The yellow-clad man struggled in his grip but it was futile. He had not wanted to interfere with matters at STAR Labs, but this man had threatened Harrison Wells' existence. He was too much of a danger to his plans.

Wondering where he should take this man, he decided on a place that would be most fitting. He made a grabbing motion at the air, tearing it apart and stepping through the rift. He walked out on the other side, which turned out to be the Ministry of Magic—it was the room where they had locked Transmutation. This time, it was refurbished and rebuilt.

Transmutation slammed the Reverse Flash in the chair and closed the shackles. The man pulled against the bonds.

"Don't bother," the metahuman growled. "I was locked in here a time. After I broke out, they rebuilt it with an energy field that prevents any use of unnatural energies. You can't phase out of those bonds."

"Why—why—Where have you taken me?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't understand," Transmutation replied. "And why? Harrison Wells is mine and I—how did you put it? _'I protect my own'_." The man laughed as he received a blank stare. "You don't remember? General Eiling—you left him to rot in the sewer."

"How do you know about that?" Thawne hissed as he struggled against his bonds.

"Never mind, never mind that," Transmutation continued to laugh. "Now I'm leaving _you_ here to rot. Have fun."

He ripped a hole in the air once more and disappeared, leaving Eobard Thawne to shout after him.

* * *

 **And that's the end of season one! Up next...well, season two of course!**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	18. Chapter 18

**I do not own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Eighteen:**

 _Harrison was walking through a forest. The trees were tall and thick, their foliage casting shadows on the ground that were broken only by dappled moonlight. The further he walked, the more and more the moonlight faded away._

 _Surrounding him were figures—they were not entirely flesh, yet they were not ghosts either. They were somewhere in between. There was a beautiful woman with long red hair and emerald green eyes, a man that looked just like Harrison except his glasses were round and his eyes were a hazel color, there was another man with long black hair and grey eyes, and one with thick brown hair and shabby robes. They walked alongside Harrison, silent._

 _He was silent too. Harrison clutched a material closer to him, out of the way of roots that snagged underfoot. It was a cloak, lighter than air, silky as water. As the figures walked behind him, he felt his courage rise. They were the reason he kept walking._

 _His body and mind felt oddly disconnected now, his limbs working without conscious instruction, as if he were a passenger, not driver, in his own body. The dead who walked beside him through the forest were much more real to him now than the living back at the castle: his friends all were the ones who felt like ghosts as he stumbled and slipped toward the end of his life, toward Voldemort._

Voldemort?

 _Yet as quick as it came, the conscious thought was gone and once again he was living a dream, as though he were seeing another's life through his own eyes. There was a thud and a whisper. Some other living creature had stirred close by. Harrison stopped under the Cloak, peering around, listening, and his mother and father, Lupin and Sirius stopped too. All of these names were foreign to him, yet as he thought them of his own volition, they felt familiar to him._

" _Someone there," came a rough whisper nearby. "He's got an Invisibility Cloak. Could it be—?"_

 _Two figures emerged from behind a nearby tree. Their wands flared, and Harrison saw that they were men—Yaxley and Dolohov, his subconscious supplied—peering in the darkness directly at him. Apparently they could not see anything._

 _Yaxley looked down at his watch._

" _Times nearly up. Potters had his hour. He's not coming."_

" _And he was sure he'd come! He won't be happy."_

" _Better go back," Yaxley muttered. "Find out what the plan is now."_

 _The two men turned deeper into the forest and Harrison followed, knowing they would lead him exactly where he wanted to go. He glanced sideways, and his mother smiled at him, and his father nodded encouragement._

 _They came out in a clearing. There was a fire burning in the center. A figure was silhouetted against the light. Around the edge of the clearing, Death Eaters stood in a circle. Yaxley and Dolohov joined the circle, conversing with Voldemort. It felt as though there was a bubble over Harrison's ears. He couldn't focus on what the men said._

 _He was just outside the circle of light. Shrouded in darkness, he began to pull off the cloak and stuff it beneath his robes with his wand. The bubble melted away and he heard clearly, "I thought he would come. I was, it seems…mistaken."_

" _You weren't."_

 _He said it as loudly as he could, with all the force he could muster. He did not want to sound afraid. A small, cold, black stone slipped from between his fingers and the figures surrounding him disappeared. He stepped into the firelight. At that moment, it seemed as if the world was empty of all except him and Voldemort. Nothing else mattered._

" _Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived," the Dark Lord said in a quiet, cold voice. "Come to die?"_

…

Harrison awoke with a start. He had had another strange dream. The young man had been having them a lot the past summer and, as usual, as he tried to remember the details it slipped away from him. He knew it had to do with the Wizarding World, but beyond that…he couldn't remember. The young man sighed and rubbed his head vigorously. His already messy black hair stood on end.

It hadn't been long since the day that Eobard Thawne had disappeared from their lives—the day that the black hole had ravaged the city. After that day, the life that Harrison had finally begun to adjust to changed entirely. Suddenly, they were no longer fighting metahumans as they used to. STAR Labs fell into disuse at the disappearance of Thawne.

It was owned by Barry. Upon Thawne's disappearance, they had told the public that he had died in the incident with the black hole. On that note, Thawne—or that time's Harrison Wells' will was set into motion. Thus why the city's scarlet speedster owned the laboratories.

Barry had decided to go solo after he realized the incident with the black hole was his fault. He moved out of Joe's house into his own apartment. He no longer fought crime with the team—he instead decided to face trials on his own where others could not get hurt. However, this left Harrison in a predicament. Suddenly, he had nowhere to stay.

Because staying in STAR Labs alone like some sort of ghost was not what he had in mind for his life, Harrison attempted to find different places to go. A month later found him the exact same position.

"Hey, uh, Joe," Harrison muttered. Joe looked up from his desk at the tall young man standing before him. Harrison scratched his ear. "Have you heard from Barry lately?"

"Not since we had a case that needed forensics," Joe sighed, setting down a case file. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Harrison shifted from one foot to another. "As you know, Barry owns STAR Labs now, and the only people in there are the ones that come in to clean, and…well…"

"You need a place to stay," Joe surmised.

Harrison nodded glumly.

"Hm," Joe mused, sitting back in his chair and placing his hand up to his chin. "Why don't you stay with Cisco?"

"Do you have a way to contact him?" Harrison asked, cringing slightly at how helpless he sounded.

"Yeah," Joe said slowly. He pulled out his phone and pressed a few buttons. "Hey, Cisco. I need you at CCPD. No, it's not about metahumans…No, Singh's already told you, you can't have a badge….Alright." He hung up, and then added to Harrison, "He's on his way over."

"Cisco's asking for a badge?" Harrison asked curiously.

"Yeah we told the captain about the metahumans and all that right after the black hole," Joe explained, "and just a few days ago he unofficially hired Cisco to help out…seeing as he's the best scientist we've got that can explain things to us in words we can understand _and_ give us things to fight them with…" He trailed off. "Anyway, what have you been doing this past week?"

"Researching," Harrison replied. Joe raised his eyebrows. "About time travel, mostly. I tried to get Barry to take me back in time—he wouldn't. Then, I tried to get him to take me with him to help fight crime—wouldn't do _that_ , either."

"Right now, Barry needs some alone time," Joe told him seriously. "After what happened that day...he needs time to think. And if it means him shutting us out, then that's alright. He'll come around eventually. At the moment, the more we go after him the more we'll end up pushing him away."

Harrison nodded.

"So on that note, I'm stranded here until Barry decides to pull his crap together."

Joe laughed.

…

"So what do you want?" Cisco asked, walking up to Joe's desk. His eyes caught on Harrison, who was sitting in an extra chair by Joe's desk.

"Thanks, Cisco, it's nice to see you too," Harrison smiled. Joe looked at Harrison, raising his eyebrows in an indication to answer his friend's question. He looked from the detective to the long-haired young man standing before him. "I need a place to stay. I tried Barry, and he's totally—"

"Going all, _'I have to do this alone'_ on us?" Cisco interrupted. "I know. I keep trying to call and every single one goes to voicemail."

"Anyway, now that STAR Labs is closed, I need somewhere else to go."

Cisco nodded. "All right, you can crash with me. But I gotta warn you, movie night is Friday. I pick the movies. You have to watch with me."

Harrison shook his head.

"If you insist," he muttered.

…

"What are you working on?"

"Something that should hopefully incapacitate metahumans long enough for the police to apprehend them," Cisco muttered, twisting his screwdriver. It had been about two months since the black hole. Harrison sat and watched Cisco. Cisco glanced back over and jumped when he saw that Harrison was still sitting there. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope," Harrison replied. "I am stuck here with no way of getting home except Barry. I have no job. I live off of _your_ food. There is absolutely nothing for me to do anymore."

"Don't sound so cheerful about it," Cisco muttered sarcastically. "Look, can you hand me that?" He gestured to a material sitting a few feet away from him.

Harrison sighed and slapped it into his friend's hand.

"Where are the police going to keep metahumans?" he asked.

Cisco paused.

"We're still working on that particular aspect."

"Ah, so we're going to continue locking them in the pipeline that is now a part of a building owned by the Flash, who has gone AWOL and won't actually allow anyone in the building."

His long-haired friend shot him a pained look and repeated, "Like I said. We're working on it. Now, why don't you go bother someone else?"

Harrison sighed heavily, got up from Cisco's kitchen table and wandered over the couch in the living room, which was technically part of the same room. The couch in the center of the room had been pulled out into a bed for Harrison. He sat on it, and stared out the window.

…

Harrison was still sitting on Cisco's pull-out couch sulking when a sudden thought came to him. He had been thinking that Barry was the only person that could get him home—was that entirely right? He knew that one of the few things "Paradox", or whatever his true name was, had said to him was that Harrison had strayed too far, referring to him being here at STAR Labs.

Did this mean that the man had access to some way of getting him home? Harrison did recall that the first time he had met the man, he had created some sort of ripple in the air that looked like the wormhole or the thing Harrison had gone through to get there. The young man had only gotten a glimpse of it before his spell had hit it and it had exploded, but perhaps _that_ was his way home.

Harrison got up.

"Where are you going?" Cisco asked warily, knowing all too well his friend had just been sulking not long before.

"Out to do some research," Harrison muttered. "Don't know when I'll be back."

He turned on his heel and disappeared with the usual _CRACK!_ He apparated directly to the barn that he had met Paradox at twice now—the first meeting inside the barn, and the second in the field behind it. He walked around the overgrown land surrounding the barn, glancing around, before going inside. Sunlight filtered in through the windows above the rafters, illuminating specks of dust that floated in the air.

Harrison poked around the barn for a few minutes, checking the loft for the strange man. Finally, he concluded that he wasn't there. Harrison growled—he had no way of contacting the man. The young man sat heavily in the center of the barn with a thump. Dust and straw flew up around him. This had been his last option—his only remaining chance of returning home.

"Paradox!" he shouted. "Come get me! I know you want to!"

There was no reply. Harrison hugged his knees and stared at the ground with hard eyes. He had no idea how long he sat there. All he knew was that sometime later, there was the sound of a door slamming and Cisco came running in the barn. At the noise, Harrison glanced up and stared at him.

"Come on man," Cisco muttered holding out a hand to help Harrison up. "Let's go."

…

Four months after the event that led to the closing of STAR Labs, Harrison and Cisco had fallen into a routine. Usually, Cisco would be sitting at his table working on some invention—on and off it would be the thing for the CCPD, which he had named "The Boot".

And while he did that, Harrison would be sitting on the couch in the sitting area. Occasionally he would flick through the TV, or flip through a book. On one particular day, he was sitting and twisting the dials on Cisco's radio. Just out of habit, he switched it to listen to the police scanners. There were a few nonsensical conversations going on as well as different cops telling the others which crime they were driving to.

Then, he heard, " _Armed robbery, 4_ _th_ _and Wade. I can't take it I'm in the middle of apprehending a vandalizer._ "

A few other voices came on, listing their current engagements. Harrison sat listening attentively. Cisco had stopped the drilling he had been doing. He looked up at Harrison and smiled.

"How do you feel about the Midnight Phantom coming back to work?"

Harrison's face split into a grin.

…

"They're having a day celebrating the day that you and the Flash helped save the city," Cisco muttered, sitting at his kitchen table.

Harrison looked up from the couch. It had now been five months since the wormhole had created that black hole over the entire city.

"You mean the day we _all_ saved the city?" he asked. He got to his feet and wandered over, looking at the news page Cisco had pulled up. "Why are they holding it so much later than the event?"

Cisco shrugged, "How should I know?"

Harrison read the headline of the news page, "' _Hero Day'._ " He scanned the page quickly, ascertaining that the day was to be held in roughly one month. "But I'm not the hero—Barry is. If it weren't for him, the black hole wouldn't have been stopped. I would have run out of energy and the shield would have fallen—it would have consumed the entire earth anyway. Not to mention Ronnie and Professor Stein—separating in the eye of the black hole—Ronnie gave his _life_ to save the city."

"But if it weren't for you, a lot more people would have died that day," Cisco argued. "I'm just saying, Barry might have saved the city, but you saved its people."

"Speaking of Ronnie," Harrison said. "Have you seen Caitlin lately?"

"No," Cisco sighed. "Not since that day. She's working at Mercury Labs now."

Harrison shook his head, wondering why such a good man as Ronnie had to die. The two had flown up into the eye of the black hole and separated, as stated before—once that was completed both men began to fall back down to earth. While Barry was catching Stein, Harrison had attempted to apparate on a piece of debris to catch Ronnie, but he had overshot—the day was so crazy, it would have been slightly difficult to concentrate on something as finicky as apparating. Nevertheless, he overshot and attempted to summon Ronnie towards himself, but it was too late—he was too far.

Caitlin hadn't blamed either Harrison or Barry, a feat that was miraculous and understandable all at once. However, as she coped with the loss of her husband, she had distanced herself from them all.

"So, are you going?" Cisco asked, breaking Harrison out of his thoughts. "It says here that the mayor is going to present the key to the city to both of you."

Harrison sighed, "I suppose so. The entire city would be disappointed if I didn't. Do you think Barry will?"

Cisco hesitated. "I don't know, man."

…

" _It's been six months since our two heroes saved Central City from the freak black hole in the sky—_ "

Harrison glanced up at the flat screen as he passed it on his way over to Joe's desk. He was following Cisco, who was carting a bunch of new supplies he had bought for the Boot. They found Joe standing and talking to the captain just past the door instead of sitting in his desk. Harrison had a charm on his face once more—he was _missing, presumed dead_ of course.

"Ho, ho, ho!" Cisco laughed as he came to a stop in front of Joe. "Fear the beard!" Singh gave him his usual grumpy, pained look. "Uh, it's a very distinguished look…sir."

He looked down awkwardly.

"What is all this, Mr. Ramon?" Singh asked, looking at the cart full of junk.

"Oh, this right here?" He asked, gesturing to it like a showman. "This is just a little something I've been working on. I'm cooking it up for Joe and the task force to take down metahumans. I think I'm gonna call it the Boot. Oh, and here are the receipts." He handed a wad of papers to the captain. Singh took them with an angry sigh and began to walk towards his office. "Oh, and um, Captain, one more thing—"

Without even turning around, Singh interrupted, "You are not getting a badge, Mr. Ramon."

Joe chuckled.

"He's really stingy with those badges, isn't he?" Cisco asked in a surly voice.

Harrison laughed.

"Come on, man," he chortled. "You've got to admit that it's funny that this has become a routine."

"Oh," Joe said, looking surprised. "I didn't see you there…Uh…?"

"It's me, Joe," the young man replied. "Harrison."

"Harrison?" Joe asked. He squinted at the young man's face. "I see now."

"Don't worry," Harrison laughed. "It's just a charm I've put on to make people not notice my face. You're not going crazy."

"I am," Cisco muttered. "It starts to hurt your brain after long enough around him when he has that charm on."

"I see you've adjusted to the thought of Harrison being a wizard instead of a metahuman," Joe commented.

Harrison had told them all about being a wizard after the incident with the black hole. Cisco had stared at him incredulously for weeks.

"Yeah," Cisco muttered, a hint of sarcastic jealousy in his voice. "He's your average 'Harry Potter'."

Harrison's head began to hurt as he was subjected to an onslaught of the phrase 'Harry Potter' in different voices.

"Don't call me that," he hissed.

Cisco jumped at the sudden malice in his tone.

"All right," he attempted to placate him. "I'm sorry."

Deciding to change the subject, Joe looked at the cart full of junk. "You really think it's gonna work?" he asked. "Don't have me caught out in the street with my pants down."

"Yes, once I finish the Boot, CCPD will totally have what it needs to take down metahumans. Especially now that Barry's decided to go all _Lone Wolf McQuade_ , and fight crime by himself. He's disconnected his coms ever since Harrison got back out there."

"Have you spoken to him?" Joe asked.

"Not really," Cisco replied unhappily. "Haven't really spoken to Caitlin either. Only you and Harrison, here."

Harrison waved a hand as Joe struggled to pinpoint him again. Joe blinked.

"You're right," he groaned to Cisco. "My head is beginning to hurt."

"I would take it off," Harrison shrugged. "Only I don't think it would end too well if I'm spotted by…well, anyone really."

Iris walked past Cisco and hugged her dad while saying, "Hey, Cisco. Hey Harrison."

"How come she can see you?" Joe asked.

"I don't know," Harrison muttered. "Somehow my charms don't quite work right on her. The first time I wore one around her, she called me Harry Potter."

Joe laughed. Cisco stared at him with wide eyes.

"Turn that way," he said.

"This is ridiculous—"

"No really!" Cisco exclaimed. "You _do_ kind of look like him. Hey, are you having any urges to use the spell, _expelliarmus_ , for all defense tactics?"

"No?" Harrison muttered, shoving his friend off of him. "How do you know about that?"

"You know? Like the disarming spell?"

Harrison stared at him. It was a disarming spell. How would a No-Maj from a world without magic know that? Cisco sighed and shook his head.

"Have you talked to Barry about the rally?" Iris asked her dad, not really paying attention to the two young men.

"We were just saying—" Joe said, gesturing to Cisco who turned back around and laughed.

"I'm sorry, but I can't _believe_ they're gonna give the Flash and the Phantom the key to the city. Though, as members of Team Flash, we should all be getting keys."

"If it means that much to you, I'll give you mine," Harrison muttered.

"You know Barry," Joe said to Iris. "The more we try to convince him to do something the less he's gonna want to do it."

"Yeah, but he should go," she sighed. "Someone should try and get through to him."

"Maybe his best friend," Joe replied.

"Joe, believe me, _I've tried_ ," Cisco muttered.

Joe and Iris both stared at him.

"I meant her," Joe dissented, nodding to his daughter.

Cisco turned slowly towards Iris, who smiled and nodded at him.

"Okay," he sighed, walking away.

Harrison laughed, grabbed his friend's cart, and followed.

…

Harrison Wells looked up at the signs all over the city. They were blue. In navy read the words, "Hero Day", and below them was a symbol. There was a round white circle, a yellow bolt of lightning, and under the lightning was Harrison's own symbol. Cisco had incorporated it into the suit when he had added the com system—as with Barry's suit, he used a symbol to back the coms.

What Harrison had decided on was the MACUSA eagle. Why he had chosen it was beyond him, but after he drew an image of the MACUSA flag for Cisco, the young man had incorporated tiny knit stars all over the suit. On the chest was blazoned the eagle in black in white, its lower half consisting of silver stripes, and the ear pieces were small, five point stars with little flames around them.

The first time Harrison had put on his new and improved suit, he felt like a walking government body. Then, he decided that if there was no government body in that place, at least he could be his own MACUSA. And when he decided that, he vowed to be good to ordinary people—something the MACUSA had never done.

So the banners filling up the city had the MACUSA's coat of arms. Harrison nearly laughed. It seemed that with all the disdain wizards showed for No-Majs, the very people they thought were inferior were boasting the wizards' colors.

The biggest banner hung in Central City Park, where the mayor was on stage standing in front of the enormous backdrop, talking and laughing with two other men. All around the stage floated balloons of red, white, blue, and yellow. Harrison stood wearing regular clothes with charms on his face and voice, next to Joe and Cisco. All three men were leaning against Joe's car.

"Expecting trouble?" Cisco asked.

"I'm a cop," Joe replied, as thought that should answer his question. "Cops expect trouble."

Harrison nodded, "It's what makes you good at what you do."

"—In this city," the detective continued, " _I_ expect evil flying monsters."

"That's a solid expectation," Cisco commented.

"Is the Boot ready?" Joe asked.

This time, it was the long-haired man's turn to nod. Then, his eyes caught on something in the distance and he breathed, "Well, I'll be."

"What?" both Harrison and Joe asked, their minds filling with curiosity.

"Caitlin's here," Cisco replied. He pointed to a specific spot. Harrison pushed up his glasses and squinted in the general direction his friend point, his eyes roving back and forth. Finally, he caught sight of her. She wore darker clothes than she used to and had her hair styled differently. The woman was holding a cup of coffee and staring grimly around.

Harrison scanned the crowd. Mostly, it was a sea of red and blue. There were some shirts with the same logo as the banners in varying colors of red, blue, or yellow. There were a great deal of people wearing Flash shirts, as well as black or blue shirts with the Midnight Phantom symbol on the chest. Dotted here and there were people wearing normal clothes.

The crowd began cheering as the mayor walked to the center of the stage, standing behind a tall podium. The tall, robust man seemed absolutely dwarfed by the enormous banner and tall podium. As the crowed began to quiet slightly, the mayor called out, "Good morning, Central City!" They fell silent. "A year ago, our world changed. Our city became ground zero for…some pretty weird stuff." Harrison laughed with the crowd. "We got a new breed of criminal—men and women who defied not only our laws, but physics and reason. But, we got something else too. We got two men who fight for _your protection_ —The Midnight Phantom…and the Flash!"

He raised his hand and the crowd began cheering once more.

"Our wounds run deep," the man continued, "and I know that many of you worry what tomorrow may bring. But these men don't just protect us—they restore hope where it was lost. That's why I'm honored to present the key to the men who saved Central City." He pulled a key on a little wooden stand out of his podium.

He held it above his head as the crowd cheered again. Harrison hesitated and looked at the stage—Barry hadn't shown up yet. Cisco hit Harrison in the shoulder and Joe raised his eyebrows, gesturing with his head towards the stage. With a _CRACK!_ he apparated to the stage and magically changed his clothes to his suit with the mask already pulled down.

The crowd grew wilder. His smile fell as he paused, waiting for the Flash. Then, the Midnight Phantom stepped forward and said quietly, "I suppose I'll take this for our scarlet friend. Don't worry, I'll get it to him."

"Here's yours," the mayor said, handing him the other. He looked sad. "It's too bad the Flash couldn't be with us."

Harrison nodded, unable to say anything. Then, there was a gust of wind and Barry appeared on stage. The mayor's face lit up in delight as Harrison handed the scarlet speedster his key. As they both smiled at the crowd, they began to chant, " _Flash! Flash! Flash_!"

Barry waved at them and shared a look with Harrison.

"The doors of Central City will forever be open to our heroes," the mayor said finally.

Then, there were screams. Both Harrison and Barry looked around wildly to see a truck flying towards the unsuspecting crowd. The Midnight Phantom threw out a hand, stopping the truck in midair. While he did this, Barry grabbed the mayor and ran.

Harrison levitated the truck to and empty space and set it down gently. He looked over at the sound of gunshots—Joe was firing at a man. He wore a mask on his face and a sleeveless leather vest on his torso. Eddie and a few other cops joined in on the shooting. The Midnight Phantom apparated over just as the man grabbed a car and shoved it towards them, knocking them over.

Harrison grabbed the car with his magic and flipped it over onto the man. He remained standing, punching a hole into the car. Then, he threw it off in rage. Harrison apparated over to catch it—nearly two blocks away.

Cisco stared at the man and his eyes widened as a vision intruded into his mind of the man in a dark room, standing next to a dark figure that was emitting blue electricity. _Why_ were all bad guys mysterious dark figures? Then, Joe's voice snapped him out of it as he shouted, "Cisco! _Cisco!_ " Cisco looked at him with a bewildered expression. "The Boot!"

"Right!" he exclaimed, running over and grabbing it. He handed it to Joe. "Locked and loaded!"

The detective aimed it at the metahumans foot and fired. A metal cuff shout out of it and onto the man's ankle. It emitted an electric pulse that traveled up the strange metahuman's body. Instead of passing out or losing his powers, as he should have, he began to grow. First his leg was the size of a light pole and his side grew. Along with it, his torso expanded to the size of a car and the man's arms stretched down, thickening like baby tree-trunks.

"He didn't go down!" Joe cried.

"He went up," Cisco mumbled faintly, unable to believe his eyes.

"Run!" the detective shouted, shoving the Boot at the long-haired young man's chest.

Then, the man let out a grunt, freezing and shrinking down into place. Behind him, Harrison tucked his wand into his boot. He walked forward and pulled the mask off of the metahuman. Barry walked up, panting.

"Turns out, what he needed was a bit of magic—not brunt force," Harrison commented.

Joe walked forward and looked down incredulously.

"That's Al Rothstein," he breathed. "We found his body earlier at a crime scene."

Harrison jumped back as the man suddenly began to blink. He grabbed Harrison's arm and threw him into Joe and Barry, running off. By the time the three men had untangled themselves, the man was out of sight.

"Huh," Harrison muttered. "Usually the stunning spell holds much longer than that."

Joe glared at him.

…

"According to the coroner's report, Rothstein's body was in the morgue all night so we can scratch of zombie attack," Cisco read off of his phone.

"Does he have a twin brother?" Joe asked.

"Nope," Harrison muttered, looking over his friend's shoulder. "Only child."

"And get this," Eddie added. "The night the accelerator exploded, Rothstein was on his honeymoon…in Hawaii."

"So we're looking for a guy who's strong, twice our size, and just so happened to look just like the guy he murdered."

"I would think this meta was really cool, if everything about him didn't terrify me to my core," Cisco muttered.

"Is that what happened to you out there?"

Another car drove up. Out of it came Stein and Iris. They all exchanged greetings and went inside the building they were parked outside of. They walked to the cortex, chatting, and turned on some computers. Then, they began to talk about the case.

"I gave the case information to Caitlin and had her do a few tests. She found radiation on that thing I gave her. She told me that all people have radiation in them."

"That would be correct," Stein said.

There was a flash and Barry appeared.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"Working," Iris replied.

"So, Caitlin was right," Cisco continued.

"Yes, all humans contain small amounts of radiation due to contact with cell phones, microwaves, televisions, et cetera," the professor explained. "Our bodies are natural conductors."

"I think our meta's been sucking up all the radiation around him and using it to power himself," Cisco realized.

"Which is why the X-ray machines at the hospital failed on the day of the rally," Iris thought aloud.

"So we just have to search for areas with no radiation," Harrison added.

Cisco clapped his hands together and pointed at Harrison.

"Then, we can find our Atom Smasher," Stein concluded. Cisco hugged him with all of his might, muttering a "Welcome to the Team" before bending over the computer and pecking away. Barry stepped forward.

"All right, guys," he started, "I don't want any of you here."

"Tough," Joe said from where he was leaning against the doorway to the med-bay. "You need your partners. You need your friends."

"Barry, everyone in this room cares about you," Iris said, looking up at him from the computer. "But we also care about this city. We all want to make a difference and that mean's fighting metahumans. You can't deny us that. Not anymore."

Barry shook his head angrily. Iris turned back to the computer.

…

Harrison apparated back inside the building to where the Flash had lured Atom Smasher. He could hear the metahuman shouting and groaning. Flashes of blue were coming from the chamber he was locked in. The Midnight Phantom stepped forward, and both he and Barry watched Atom Smasher shrink to his regular size.

" _The radiation is gone_ ," came Caitlin's voice. " _It's safe to go in."_

The Flash opened the door. Harrison followed him inside. The scarlet speedster knelt over the dying body.

"I'm sorry," he whispered honestly. "We couldn't let you hurt anyone else." He paused. "Why? Why did you want to kill me?"

"He promised he'd take me home," the man choked, "if I killed you."

"Who promised you that?" Harrison asked from where he stood, looking down at Atom Smasher.

The man choked and gasped quietly. Then, he looked up at Harrison and whispered, "Zoom." Then, he blinked a few times and his head lolled to the side and he stared ahead blankly.

…

Barry zoomed into the room, ruffling everyone's hair.

"What's going on?" Cisco asked, turning around as Caitlin ran in behind him, huffing and puffing.

The Flash held up a small thumb-drive.

"Wells—Thawne—" Eddie looked up at him. "—Eobard—left this to me," he said excitedly, sounding much different than he had earlier. "Look."

Joe wandered over as he plugged it into the keyboard and Stein leaned over Harrison's shoulder to watch as an image of Eobard Thawne—in Harrison Wells' body, of course—appeared. Barry his the play button.

" _My name is Harrison Wells_ ," the recording said, staring directly at the camera. " _Being of sound mind and body, I freely confess to the murder of Nora Allen in her home on the night of May 2_ _nd*_ , _in the year 2000. I attacked Nora Allen in the sitting room of the house and stabbed her in the heart, placing the knife in Henry Allen's hands and framing him._ "

As the recording continued, Joe looked to Barry with wide eyes.

"He confessed," Cisco breathed.

"This is what we need to free your dad!" Joe said. The recording ended and Joe walked out of the room, saying on the way out, "I'm gonna call the DA."

Barry followed him.

Harrison leant back in his chair, sighed, and rubbing his head. His black hair stood on end.

"This is good news!" Iris beamed. "Why aren't you happy for Barry?"

"I am," Harrison muttered, looking down. "Only—" he looked up at the others. "Now I definitely can't go anywhere or I'll be locked up for a crime I didn't commit."

* * *

 ***originally March 18, changed for plot purposes.**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	19. Chapter 19

**I don't own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Nineteen:**

"Was it enough?" Iris asked.

"Yeah," Joe replied.

"Oh, Barry, I almost forgot," Cisco said. "Guess what? I made an upgrade to your suit."

He pressed a button and Barry's flash suit lowered into place. Replacing the old lightning bolt was a newer and shinier one. This one was encased in a white circle, unlike the old symbol which was a bolt of lightning in a red circle. Barry laughed.

"It's just like the one in the newspaper article Gideon showed us from the future," Cisco explained. "I figured, you know, we shouldn't fear the future anymore, right?"

"No," Barry shook his head with a smile. "And it'll be here faster than we think."

"I must say, I like it," Stein said. "The lightning definitely pops more against the white."

"And STAR Labs is now safer than ever," Caitlin added. "Increased security and surveillance."

"Re-coded, double-firewalled, electronic locksets," Cisco explained.

"Nothing is getting through here without us knowing," Harrison finished.

"So people can't just waltz in and out of here?" Eddie asked.

"Exactly," Cisco replied.

In front of him, Caitlin jumped. Cisco, Iris, and Harrison turned to see what she was looking at—a man stood in the shadows. "For real?" Cisco asked.

"Stay where you are," Joe growled, pulling out his gun. His partner did the same.

"Who are you?" Barry asked.

"You don't know me, but I know you, Barry Allen," said a deep, clear voice. The figure shifted his weight to take a step forward.

"Take one more step and it'll be the last step you take," Joe warned. "The man asked you a question. Who the hell are you?"

The man shifted into the light, revealing a pale face, blue eyes, and light brown hair.

"My name is Jay Garrick," he said, "And your world is in danger."

Barry's eyes narrowed and he looked up and down the man with a look of confusion plastered on his face.

"Please just let me explain," Jay pleaded. "I mean you no harm."

Harrison glanced down at the man's hands that were clasped placidly in front of him.

"How do you know my name?" Barry asked.

"I know all your names," Jay replied. "Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Detective Joe West, Dr. Harrison Wells—"

Joe raised his gun again.

"Enough!" he growled. The man raised his hands in a gesture of peace. "The explaining needs to happen right now."

"This world is in danger," the stranger repeated.

"What other worlds are there?" Cisco asked.

"When you created the singularity above Central City," the man explained, his hands still raised, "you also created a breach between your world and mine."

"I'm sorry," Iris interrupted. "A breach?"

"Yes, a portal connecting our two Earths."

"And what precisely is your concern?" Stein asked.

"A few days ago you found a dead man named Al Rothstein at a nuclear plant. But then, a different Al Rothstein tried to kill you."

"Atom Smasher," Cisco muttered.

"That man was from our world," the stranger continued. "If he got through the breach, I suspect there will be more to follow."

"Okay," Barry said, spreading his arms wide. "So, Jay, how exactly do you know all this?"

"Where I came from, I was a speedster like you," he replied. "They called me the Flash." Barry stared at him. "Before I arrived on your Earth, I was in a fight with a man called Zoom."

"Zoom?" Barry asked. "I've heard that name before. Atom Smasher said Zoom sent him to kill me. Who is this guy?"

"He's a speedster like you and me. And fast. Maybe the fastest of all, but evil. He is an unstoppable demon with the face of death. We were engaged in our fiercest battle ever, racing throughout my city, but I wasn't fast enough to stop him. Zoom had me beaten. He was about to kill me when suddenly there was a blinding light and the sky split open. A breach between my world and yours, caused by the singularity. It pulled me in, and I somehow ended up in your world. Powerless. Unable to return home."

"That sounds familiar," Harrison muttered.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked Jay.

The man looked down, blinking.

"I lost my speed," he informed them.

"How?" Barry asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," the man replied. His hands were clasped in front of him once more.

Joe looked to Barry, who raised a hand and shook his head.

"So, you've been in Central City for six months," Joe noted. "Why haven't you come to see us before?"

"I'm in a foreign world here, Detective. I didn't know who you all were. Took me that long to piece it all together."

"So that's how you know our names," Iris surmised. "You've been following us."

Jay walked forward and placed his hands on the desk, saying, "Look, I know how this all sounds. The existence of another Earth, you, another Flash? It all came as an unexpected shock to me too. I just wish there was something I could do to convince you."

"There is," Barry said. "We're gonna run some tests on you. See if you're telling us the truth. Because if you're not, this Zoom is not going to be your only enemy."

Jay swallowed heavily.

…

While Caitlin was running tests on Jay and talking with him, the others were standing around the cortex.

"Is in of this possible?" Iris asked. "A breach to another earth? It's not, right?"

"On the contrary," Stein replied, beginning to pace about the room excitedly. "Just recently, the many worlds theory proposed interaction with parallel universes was plausible. Now, if what Mr. Garrick's saying is true, that theory's been proven sooner than we all thought."

Harrison nodded. "Back in my time, before I was sent here, I was working on the String Theory."

"It doesn't add up," Barry muttered, placing his hands on the railing on the back of the desk.

"I don't even understand what the hell any of you are talking about," Joe said, waving his hands.

From where he sat on the desk, Cisco replied, "So Jay is saying he's from like, a mirror world. Or, a parallel universe that's very, very similar to ours."

"Multi-verse would be a more apt description," Stein chimed in.

Joe continued to stare at the desk. Then, he shook his head.

"Nope," he muttered. "Not helping."

"Bless your heart," Cisco muttered sympathetically.

"Okay, see if this helps," Stein said, pulling over the clear dry-erase board and picking up a marker. He drew a circle. "This is our Earth. Let's call it Earth One."

Inside the circle he wrote "E-1."

"And this second Earth," he added, drawing the same sized circle beside the first one. "Let's call it Earth Two."

And he wrote in, "E-2."

"This is where Jay claims to be from." He paused, and then drew a bunch of smaller circles around the two large ones. "And these other Earths, three, four, five, to infinity." He stopped drawing and turned back to Joe. "All of them are nearly identical to ours and they all exist at the same time, giving us endless alternatives to what we have here. For example, the Joe West on Earth Two—your doppelganger—he might not be a detective. He might be an award winning physicist. The Barry Allen on this Earth is the Flash, but over there, he could be an electrician—"

"And," Harrison interrupted, coming to a realization, "The Harrison Wells on this Earth is dead, whereas on Earth Two, or any number of other Earths, he may still be alive."

Stein nodded.

"So I'm assuming that the people on all these other Earths work to make money to pay bills and such?" Joe asked slowly.

"I would imagine," the professor replied.

"So that's something we have in common," Joe said. "I'm heading back to the station. Call me when things are beginning to make a little more sense. I'm still trying to wrap my head around time-travel."

Cisco and Harrison both laughed, the former waving goodbye to the detective. Barry watched him go with a smile on his face. Once he was gone, Professor Stein walked forward and said, "There is one problem that remains. If Mr. Garrick is telling the truth, there is a breach that remains somewhere in the city that we need to find. And close for good."

"Yeah, but how do we find it?" Cisco asked. "We don't even know what we're looking for."

"Well I suggest we put out heads together and figure something out," the professor said. With that, he too left.

As he did so, Caitlin walked into the room.

"What did you find?" Iris asked.

"Well," Caitlin said slowly. "Jay's heartrate _is_ extraordinarily low and he seems to have regenerative capabilities." She set down her iPad and put her hands on her hips. "Other than that, I'm not seeing any evidence of the speed force in his system."

"We don't even have proof that he's a speedster, much less from another Earth?" Barry asked.

"Not necessarily," Caitlin returned. "Jay doesn't know this, but while I was testing his heart rate, blood pressure, and motor responses, I also measure his autonomic reactions while we were talking."

"You tested him for lying?" Harrison asked.

"And he passed," Caitlin replied, raising her hands.

Barry shook his head and glanced at Jay, who was sitting on the bed in the med-bay, staring at the ground, his back facing them.

"What if he's not a good guy and he just wants to find out our weaknesses?" Barry asked worriedly. "Keep running tests. See what else you can find out."

…

"So what do you think about all of this?" Stein asked, walking up to Harrison. The young man shrugged. He looked down at the ground. He looked back "Perhaps we were getting this wrong the whole time. What if you aren't from this past time, but a past time of another Earth?"

The professor sounded so excited at this revelation, Harrison couldn't bring himself to tell the man that he had been theorizing as much for a few months now. Instead, he rubbed the back of his head and said, "Well it would certainly make returning home much more easy, mentally. Then I don't have to worry about whether or not I would die the day I return."

The professor nodded sympathetically.

"I couldn't imagine being in your predicament," he said quietly. "But perhaps we will learn exactly what's going on some day."

Harrison nodded. "I hope so." He looked around the empty room. "Let's get back to the cortex."

The two men walked to the room together in silence. Once there, they found Cisco talking into the microphone on the desk. "Barry? Barry! What was that?"

"What did we miss?" Harrison asked.

"Just a fire," Cisco replied, turning in his chair towards them. "Barry's already got it covered."

" _I don't know_ ," came Barry's voice over the coms, answering Cisco's previous question. " _But we need to find out_."

…

Jay was running on the treadmill. Standing behind the glass were Iris and Caitlin. Harrison sat a little ways away, floating a pen in his hand.

"His heart rate is low, his blood pressure is low, his oxygen levels are impressive," Caitlin said, looking at the screen that monitored the man's health.

"But nothing compared to Barry's," Iris commented.

"No, but he's certainly in the physical specimen range."

"Oh, please," Harrison muttered, catching his pen in his hand. "Can't we stop arguing about whether Barry is right—or whether Jay is right—and just keep a close eye on this character?"

"But Barry—"

"Is reacting out of instinct, right?" they nodded. "And he _has_ that instinct because of what just happened to him. A close mentor _betrayed_ him. He's going to be suspicious of anyone new for a little while. I say we give Jay a chance—but keep a close eye on him. Compromise, right?"

Caitlin and Iris both nodded.

"Thanks," Harrison muttered. "Now I don't have to listen to anymore arguments."

…

"I thought we were keeping Jay in the pipeline!"

"Oh, for goodness sakes, Barry," Harrison hissed. "If it's that important to you, I'll keep a personal eye on him for you. I live here anyway."

"I thought you were living with Cisco?"

Behind them, Cisco glanced up from the tube of sand he was inspecting.

"Only when STAR Labs was closed," Harrison replied. "I mooch off his food no longer."

"I still have a bad feeling about this," Barry muttered.

"Good," Harrison replied curtly. "You have an ability to react to pain and betrayal. Now, I think I am quite done with this discussion."

Both he and Barry walked over to Cisco, neither saying a word nor looking at each other.

"Man, I always thought you were so different from the Dr. Wells we know," Cisco muttered. "Now you're starting to act more like him."

"I suppose reprimanding another comes with maturity," the dark-haired young man muttered in return.

Cisco shoved the lens away.

"Huh," he muttered. "What is this stuff? Sand?"

Barry shrugged.

"It's not sand," Jay told them. "It's human cells whose myosin-two protein have migrated to the cell's periphery."

"Jay's a fellow science nerd," Caitlin said at the three men's dumbfounded looks.

"Those cells thereby have the ability to rearrange and harden themselves, giving them the appearance of sand."

"And how do you know this?" Cisco asked, still holding the vial aloft in his hand.

"They belong to a meta-human I've fought before named Sand Demon."

Cisco got to his feet and said, "I know you're new here, but I'm just going to break it down for you. The whole naming the bad guys thing, that's my jam." Jay nodded. "But you know what, I'm going to let you have that one, 'cause I actually kinda like it. I'm not mad at that one." His smile fell as his head tilted and he asked loudly, "Is that Barry's sweatshirt?"

"This place has a surplus of them," Harrison replied, pulling at his own grey STAR Labs t-shirt. "It's not Barry's, though it's the same make-up."

"So who is this Sand Demon?" Iris asked.

"I don't know his name," Jay replied. "But I know how to stop him."

"You know what, I think we'll do fine on our own," the Flash replied.

Harrison shot him a pained look.

"Barry," Jay nearly shouted. "I don't know what else I can do to prove it to you that I'm on your side!" Barry shook his head. "I've been poked, prodded—I've even subjected myself to a full body scan—"

Iris turned slowly to look at the doctor standing beside her.

"I was being thorough," Caitlin said quickly.

"Sand Demon's from my world. Let me teach you how to stop him."

"Yeah, I don't need you to teach me anything, Jay."

"Zoom sent Rothstein here to kill you," Jay added adamantly. "He must have sent Sand Demon here to do the same thing. Don't you get it? Anyone close to the Flash—all of you—are in a lot of danger!"

"All right," Barry argued, stepping forward. "If you were so good, you would have stopped him already."

"Barry!" Harrison suddenly shouted. "That's enough!"

Barry looked at him with a shocked expression. Harrison calmed down immediately when he realized how much he had sounded like his imposter whenever he was angry. Quietly this time—so quiet it was nearly a whisper—he said, "I think we all just need to go calm down. You're not thinking. The Barry I know wouldn't say these things."

And he walked out of the room leaving Barry to continue to stare at him in bewilderment. Cisco followed him out. The two of them walked down to the basement where they found Professor Stein writing at the very bottom of a chalk board in tiny writing—the entire board was already full.

"Woah," Cisco said, stopping in the doorway. " _Beautiful Mind_ , I think you need to take a breather."

Stein finished writing, and then turned around to face the two young men who had fully entered the room. Cisco walked over to his desk and put the sample of cells under his microscope.

"After some lengthy calculations," he said, rubbing his head, "I believe I have found the solution to proving the proposed breach theory." Cisco looked back up at him and Harrison looked at him expectantly. "Exotic matter."

"Trans-dimensional energy," Cisco breathed.

"Precisely," the professor smiled. "Exotic matter—trans-dimension energy will theoretically leak from one universe into another." He moved his hand along a drawing on the chalk board of two earths and a wormhole. "Now if this breach Mr. Garrick is tell us about is real, if there is indeed a hole in our universe which leads to his Earth—"

"We can make some adjustments," Cisco interrupted, "and upload an electrophotography program to the STAR Labs satellite, and essentially photograph the exotic matter leak."

"Giving us the location of the breach," Harrison concluded happily. Stein and Cisco turned to look at him. "Yes, I'm still here. Thank you."

The three men laughed excitedly as Cisco said, "Last time I saw the kit was in fabrication room." They watched Stein run out of the room, and then Cisco turned back to his work with the metahuman-sand-cells. "Now let's see what you're made of." He poured some of the sand under the microscope. "It's too much."

Harrison watched as his friend picked up the sand. Then, he head jerked up and he stared into the distance, slack-jawed. "Cisco!" Harrison exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

Cisco's head slumped and he put a hand up to his brow.

"Are you all right?"

Cisco looked up at him.

"I-I don't know," the young man replied. "My head just started hurting really bad."

…

 _There was one time that Harrison's memory was wiped. He knew it had been—there was an odd blank where he couldn't remember what he had done that day or anything. As he tried to remember more, the more the hole became more obvious—but he could not recover his memories. So, with no other choice, he went to the MACUSA._

" _I thought I said I didn't want to see your face again," Hornfeck said slowly, looking up at Harrison._

" _I think my memory's been wiped," Harrison replied._

" _How do you know that?" the man asked. "You could've been hit over the head."_

" _I don't think it's usual to have large parts of your day missing," he hissed in return._

 _Hornfeck sighed._

" _I suppose I'll send you to a different department to get you fixed up…"_

…

"Yo."

"The sample you gave us?" Cisco asked Barry as he walked in. "Not sand. It's human cells."

"Yeah, I know," Barry sighed. "It's not him, I get it."

"I hate to say it, but I think this Earth Two theory is starting to make sense."

"For real?" Barry asked.

"What, you think Jay is lying about Sand Demon?" Harrison asked.

"I don't know, that's my point," Barry said. "But I'm not just gonna believe some guy that walks in here and says a few things that sort of check out."

"Sort of?" Cisco asked. "He was right about Zoom."

"We don't even know anything about Zoom!" Barry argued. "Or what Zoom is. Is Zoom even real? Right now, that's just a story around the campfire. Have you discovered a breach yet?"

"Not yet," Stein replied, looking down at the computer, "but we now know how to."

"Have you found one thing to suggest Jay is a speedster?" he asked Caitlin. "Is the speed force even in his system—?"

"We get it," Harrison interrupted. "You're afraid to trust him. But you don't have to trust him. Just please, _please,_ give him a chance. You're asking all the questions and saying all these "what ifs", but now I'm gonna give you one. What—if— _you're_ —not right?"

…

"Hey, Joe," Harrison said into his phone. "Can I talk to you?"

" _What's on your mind?"_

"It's Barry," he replied. "He's…he's not willing to trust anyone. I can't get through to him. Could you…?"

Joe sighed _. "I'll try."_

"All right, thanks," Harrison replied, hanging up the phone. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Life had gotten so complicated. He didn't understand why Barry had to become so doubting of everyone.

…

"We're looking for any structures with moisture," Jay told them. They all stood there, listening, even Barry. Apparently it took Eddie being kidnapped again before he would accept help. "Greenhouses, washrooms—his body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated."

"Like dry sand," Caitlin thought.

"Exactly. Sand Demon always attacks on two fronts. He creates a diversion, then strikes when you're distracted."

"Okay, then what do we do?" Barry asked.

"We use your speed to get to him before the distraction can happen."

"Jay, how do I stop somebody that can slip through my fingers?"

"The way I was never able to," the man replied. "With lightning."

Behind them, Cisco clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "Yo! Are you about to pull a Zeus right now?"

"What do you mean?" Harrison asked Jay.

"Barry's going to hurl lightning using the energy he creates when he runs."

"Because lightning plus sand equals—" Caitlin started.

"Glass," Barry finished, finally smiling.

Jay looked at Barry earnestly and said, "Time to try something new."

Barry turned and his smile fell. Harrison turned to see what he was looking at—Joe was standing outside the door, on his phone. He was no doubt worried about his partner.

"I'll be right back," Barry muttered, leaving the room.

Harrison shook his head.

…

"I've searched all the vacant buildings and none of them fit the description of what we're looking for," Caitlin told them.

"And I've looked at any draw upticks on the electrical grid," Stein replied. "Nothing out of the norm, I'm afraid."

"We gotta do whatever it takes," Cisco muttered, sitting at the computer on the left with his hands clasped in front of him. He paused, looking around. "I'll be back."

And he got up, shoving his chair back and hurrying out of the room. Stein and Harrison caught eyes. Beside them, Caitlin looked at the empty doorway. Stein turned away to follow Cisco. Harrison followed him. They found him in the basement.

"Mr. Ramon?" the professor asked. "What are you doing down here?"

Cisco floundered, looking around.

"I figured out where Eddie is," he told them.

"How?" Harrison asked slowly.

"Just a hunch," Cisco said haltingly. Harrison shook his head—he was surrounded by terrible liars. It wasn't hard to spot them. Being a wizard, he had to make up lies daily to keep the Statute of Secrecy. Harrison glanced at Stein. He was staring at Cisco, disbelief written all over his face as well. "We gotta go tell Barry!"

Cisco ran out of the room.

"Did that seem…a bit strange to you?" the professor asked.

"Oh yeah," Harrison replied with a nod.

…

"I know where they are! The abandoned Woodrue grow house. That's where Slick's keeping Eddie."

"Dude, great job," Barry praised.

"And, I was thinking, if I were Sand Demon and I was attacking a speedster, I would probably want to slow you down, like by using a concussive bomb, or something like that."

"That's a good thought," Jay replied. "He's actually used something like that before."

Harrison and Stein caught eyes again.

"He could not have made an assumption that correct on a hunch," Harrison whispered, receiving a nod.

"—His body absorbs the blast, so it doesn't affect him," Jay continued.

"We're fighting on two fronts?" Harrison asked. "Well, this is easy. Just have two fighters."

"How?" Jay asked.

"He's kind of the Midnight Phantom," Barry explained.

"Who?" Jay asked.

"Of course they don't have one," Harrison muttered. "Anyway, we can both go. I'll distract Sand Demon, you neutralize the bomb, and then you can finish him off with lightning—there aren't many spells that use it."

"Let's go," Barry said.

…

" _I'm in the security feed,_ " Cisco said over the coms.

" _We need a distraction about now_ ," came Barry's voice.

"I've got just the thing," Harrison smiled.

He apparated in the doorway and stood there, silhouetted.

"Is that you, Flash?" asked a man inside.

"No," he replied. He stepped into the light where the man could see him. He was certainly angry.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is the Midnight Phantom," Harrison replied. The man gave him a confused look. "Haven't heard of me? Well, I'm pretty unique—one of a kind."

The man ran forward, swinging out his hand to punch. Harrison wordlessly conjured a shield charm that deflected him. He fell backwards, separating into sand around the shield before rematerializing on the ground.

"Bit slow, aren't you?" he asked.

With a roar, the man picked himself up and ran at him again. Harrison thrust out a hand. The man went flying. He changed into sand, which continued to levitate in the air at Harrison's command.

"I could go all day!" he shouted with a smile. He glanced over and saw Barry standing at the back of the grow house.

He quietly walked forward and electricity crackled around him as he grabbed Eddie and ran. The bomb set off and he just managed to get out of range to not undergo too much damage. Eddie, not being a metahuman, was knocked out. Harrison, however was buffeted back.

"I believe you're looking for me?" Barry asked, getting to his feet.

Harrison rolled over with a groan.

"Yes, Flash," Sand Demon smiled. He shout out an arms of sand and began choking the scarlet speedster.

Harrison got up and ran over. Thinking fast, he used a silent banishing charm on the sand.

"Ah!" Sand Demon exclaimed, bending over—his hand was missing. It seemed that banishing his cells in sand form banished them totally.

"Now, Barry!" Harrison shouted.

Barry began to run in circles around the man, creating a circle of crackling yellow electricity. Sand Demon spun in circles and shouted, "Come on!"

Barry let out a yell and hit him in the chest with a bolt of lightning. Sand Demon solidified into a brown glass and fell to the ground, shattering.

"Are you all right?" Harrison asked. Barry nodded. "Jay was right about everything, wasn't he."

Barry nodded.

"I was wrong," he muttered.

…

"So if I'm from a different Earth," Harrison said to Professor Stein, "how would we identify which one? There's an infinite number out there."

"We will figure something out," Stein smiled. "In the meantime—what to do with Cisco?"

"Ah, yes," Harrison nodded. "He has been acting a bit strange, hasn't he?"

"Strange?" Stein parroted. "It's a bit more than strange."

"Why don't we just ask him about it?" Harrison asked.

Stein hesitated, and then nodded. They walked down to Cisco's personal lab. As he entered the room, the professor asked, "Any luck with the electrophotography?"

"Yeah, the satellite picture of the city is still rendering," Cisco replied.

"While we wait, would you care to tell us what's going on with you?" Stein continued. Cisco looked up at them in surprise.

"What?" Cisco asked. "Nothing."

"We're not blind," Harrison told him. "Or stupid. Two correct hunches in a row is a bit of a stretch."

"Slick's locale and that he'd be using a concussive bomb to thwart Barry," Stein explained. As Cisco said nothing, he added, "Do I need to inform you of the odds of such a prediction?"

Cisco looked up with a guilty look.

"Something's happening to me," he whispered. "I'm starting to perceive things. Horrible things. It started after Eobard Thawne killed me in the other timeline. It came back when Atom Smasher attacked on Hero Day. And then again when Sand Demon showed up. I get a vibe, and then a vision of something that's already happened." His hands shook as he gestured halfheartedly while he talked. "And then it's gone." He swallowed. "That's how I knew where Slick was."

"Cisco, this is amazing," Stein said. "We have to study this—figure out what to do."

"No, no, no, we're not doing any of that!" Cisco dissented, getting to his feet and shaking his finger at the professor. "And we're certainly not telling anyone else, either."

"Cisco," Harrison argued, "You can't keep this a secret. If we figured it out, it won't take long—"

"You don't understand," Cisco dismissed him. "Wells—Thawne—he did this to me. Before he disappeared, he told me that he gave me this power. But everything he did was evil. That's what scares me. You have to promise me, you won't tell anyone about this," he glanced between them. "Both of you."

Harrison nodded and Professor Stein whispered, "I promise."

Behind them there was a beeping.

"Oh, wow," Cisco breathed.

…

On the TV screen displayed a map of the city with many imprints dotted across it. Addressing the others, Stein said, "It appear that while we were successful in closing the singularity, there was an unfortunate side effect."

"What are you talking about?" Barry asked.

"Using electrophotography, Cisco and I were able to search the city for any signs of energy entering our Earth from another dimension. From any breaches, as Mr. Garrick describes them."

"But of course there isn't one breach," Cisco said angrily. "There's fifty-two of them scattered throughout the city.

"The breaches are pockets of time and space, folding into and upon itself," as Stein said this, Harrison remembered the anomaly he had experienced on the beach—the one that had brought him here. "The most significate breach of all seems to be this one—"

Glumly, Cisco pressed a button and the screen zoomed in on an enormous flare on the map.

"And where exactly is that located?" Caitlin asked.

"It's here," the older man replied. "Inside STAR Labs. And just beyond that breach is an entirely diff—dif—re—" He cut off, stuttering, before falling to the ground.

They all bent over around him.

"Professor!" Barry explained. "Professor!"

…

" _Where have you been, then?" Tess asked as Harrison went into his apartment._

" _Just checking something out," he replied._

" _Is everything all right?" she asked worriedly._

" _Yeah," the young man replied, as he could remember exactly what had been wiped out of his mind. "I was just a witness to a robbery. They questioned me, is all."_

 _And it was partly true. He had witness a wizard stealing from No-Maj. The wizard must have had some sort of No-Maj-repelling charm on him to deter witnesses, which was why he had known Harrison was a wizard—he had ambushed him and wiped his memory._

" _Come on then," Tess smiled. "Let's go eat dinner."_

 _Harrison closed his eyes briefly. He hated having to lie to his girlfriend about things like this._

* * *

 **LittleMissMycroft  
**


	20. Chapter 20

**I do not own**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty:**

"Fifty-two breaches in the city and the biggest one just happens to be in our basement," Barry muttered. They were all standing in the bunker, where the largest breach was. Harrison looked at it—it was almost exactly like the one he had traveled through, only larger.

"We need a name for it," the man standing next to Harrison breathed with a smile.

"It's not a pet, Cisco," Caitlin retorted.

"No, it's a wormhole!"

They all turned to see an elderly man making his way into the room.

"Professor Stein, what are you doing?" Caitlin asked, walking towards him. "Your blood pressure is one-forty-seven over eighty-two! You could pass out again."

"It's merely a few points above the one-forty average for a man of my age," he dismissed. "Besides, I have some ideas that I would like to contribute to this discussion, Dr. Snow."

"And I want to hear them," Jay piped up. "This isn't just a wormhole—it's my way home."

"I can understand that," Harrison muttered.

"Jay, you really think we can use this as some kind of bridge from your world to ours?" the Flash asked.

"Zoom uses the breaches," the man replied in a hopeful tone, his eyes roving across the wormhole. "Why can't we?"

"We don't know how," Cisco replied. "Everything I put through just bounces back."

"If Zoom can do it, maybe it just takes a speedster," Barry replied.

"But—" Harrison started, recalling that he wasn't a speedster and had traveled through one. Barry cut him off, zipping to the back of the room.

"He's not really gonna—?" Cisco started.

"Yeah, he is," Jay replied.

There was a flash and Barry was thrown off the rippling mass onto the ground, rolling a few feet before coming to a stop.

"Maybe I'm not fast enough," he suggested, smiling.

"I don't think this is a matter of speed," Professor Stein noted. "Most theories show that wormholes are completely unstable."

"No, he's right," Jay nodded. "Think of the breach as a door, and there's one on my Earth as well. There's a hallway connecting the two, but it keeps spinning and collapsing in on itself—"

"And the door is moving with it," Cisco added

"So if we stabilize the door," Harrison realized, "we can stabilize the hallway."

"Exactly," Jay responded. "It would serve as a kind of cannon—a speed cannon."

Cisco smiled and motioned to him, "We need to hang out more."

"All right," Stein said. "No more tests today. All of you are leaving, as am I. Cherish the gift of youth as I will go cherish my much-needed nap. Clarissa's already on her way to pick me up."

…

Cisco and Harrison both laughed in surprise as they entered the bunker a few days later to see the wormhole spinning evenly, a few structures built around it.

"Wow, look at that!" Cisco exclaimed as the two of them joined the others to look at it. "Dudes, you actually built a thing!"

"Mr. Garrick, I'm quite impressed of what you've accomplished during my recent wellness hiatus," Stein praised.

"Have you tested it out yet?" Cisco asked.

"Not yet," Jay replied. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Allow me!" Stein exclaimed, grabbing a book. Caitlin's mouth opened in outrage and she raised a finger to stop him and he let out a grunt and threw the book through. "Excelsior!"

"How did you stabilize it?" Barry asked.

"CFL quark matter," the man replied.

"Ah!" Cisco exclaimed. "Negative density with positive surface pressure. Genius!"

"You created quark matter?" Harrison asked curiously.

"No, it's something we've already perfected on Earth Two. I'll show you sometime."

"Sometime as in within the next few minutes?" Stein asked.

"Oh, you're right," Jay stopped. He almost looked sad to return home.

"Why don't you stay here and help with Zoom?" Harrison asked. "We could always use an extra head when dealing with these things—especially someone who already has experience with them.

Jay looked around, and then nodded.

"All right," he said. "But just until after Zoom is defeated. Then I'll return home. Which will be nice, because I need a good shower, shave, and some sunlight."

Harrison nearly laughed, knowing exactly how the man felt. Jay walked out of the bunker and Caitlin turned to the professor, asking, "Professor Stein, how are you feeling?"

"Well it seems a little rest heals all maladies," he smiled. "I—I—I couldn't feel b-be—"

He cut off again, his head thrown back. His pupils glowed white and he continued to shake.

"Professor?" Caitlin asked worriedly.

"No, no, no, get back!" Barry exclaimed, pulling Caitlin and Cisco back. Harrison jumped back with them as fire erupted out of Stein's head and hands.

Then, the fire suddenly turned blue and his eyes became black—there was no separation of the whites of his eyes to his iris or pupil. The fire went out, and the professor slumped to the ground with a gasp.

Then, they all rushed forward once more.

"Professor?" Caitlin asked. "Professor Stein! Can you hear me?"

"What happened? He went up like FIRESTORM," Barry asked. "But the flame—why was it blue?"

"I don't know," the doctor replied. "We need to stabilize him fast."

…

"Hold him steady!" Cisco shouted.

"He's dropping out," Caitlin told them, looking at his vitals. The elderly man was seizing and his head was on fire again—the fire was still blue.

"Come on, come on," Barry whispered.

"Cisco we're losing him!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"Got it!" Cisco shouted. He ran over and typed something on the computer, adjusting the quantum splicer he had attempted to make, and the fire was gone. Stein stopped thrashing and his breathing leveled out. "Oh, dios mio. Thank God."

Harrison stood there, his heart pounding away in his ears as the terror of losing the professor slowly ebbed away, replaced with a silence that was crushing. Beside him, Barry muttered, "He's getting worse."

Caitlin nodded.

"Look, we did what we could to reengineer Thawne's original stabilizer to quell the reaction—" Cisco began.

"But we just don't know a lot of things he did—" Harrison interrupted.

"I don't know what he used as a power source, for one," Cisco explained.

"The best we could find was the one from the wheelchair," Harrison finished.

"And how long will that last?" Caitlin asked.

Harrison thought, doing some calculations in his head.

"A few days?" he guessed. "A week?"

"A week at most," Cisco responded.

"And he's stuck in bed?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, when he wakes up, I'm going to transfer him to this," Cisco patted an odd looking metal cane. "Give him a power cane—get him moving."

"We've got to figure out a way to save him," Barry muttered.

"I think I might know how to do that," Caitlin informed them. "When the particle accelerator exploded, the dark matter that collided with Professor Stein fused with the FIRESTORM matrix, and altered the normal molecular processes that occur within his body. Those highly reactive molecules needed something to bond with in order to stabilize."

"And that's where Ronnie came in," Cisco muttered.

"Yes, and now that Ronnie is no longer a part of Professor Stein—"

"The molecules don't have anything to bond to," Harrison finished.

"And the longer he goes without merging, the more unstable he will become."

Cisco made an unhappy noise. "All right, so what do we do?"

"Find another participant," Caitlin replied.

"Okay, cool," he nodded. "So how exactly are we going to do that? Are we just gonna make a Tinder app for potential metahumans? 'Cause I'm pretty sure merging with Stein and randomly bursting into flames sounds like the biggest swipe left of all time."

"Even if we could find someone willing, Stein can't just merge with whoever he wants," Barry said.

"No, he can't," Caitlin responded, "but I have done some research and I found two potential candidates that might be compatible with him." She walked over to the computer and pulled up a document. "They both were affected by the dark matter, and they were both admitted to the hospital showing symptoms of gene rearrangement mutation." She looked down at the two IDs pulled up. "And they both share the same blood type as Professor Stein and Ronnie."

"All right," Barry replied with a sigh. "This is more than organ donation. We'll need more than tissue typing to see if their bodies are compatible."

"If I can isolate the genetic locus of the two participants, and cross-reference it with the mutations in Professor Stein, I might be able to find a match—and save his life."

"What do you need to have to do that?" Barry asked.

"Blood," Caitlin told him.

"All right," the speedster nodded. He ran off. Just a few minutes later, he reappeared, dangling two vials in their faces.

"All right, blood sample from both potential candidates."

"Wow, that was fast even for you," Cisco exclaimed.

"I may have skipped the asking for permission part," Barry explained.

Harrison shook his head.

Caitlin took the samples and said, "Let's see if we can't find a match."

…

After leaving Creevey's apartment, Transmutation had stumbled around Diagon Alley for a few minutes. Then, his ears began pounding. There was a nudge at the back of his skull—Albert was trying to push his way forward. Upset that Transmutation had blown up Albert's friend's living room, he was trying to take control.

"No," Transmutation muttered, stumbling into an empty alcove in between two closed shops. "Get away!"

As he said this, he made a swipe in the air, and a tear formed across the path his hand had taken—almost like a tear in the fabric of reality itself. Transmutation and Albert both stopped, surprised. Albert was shoved to the back of his mind once more as Transmutation looked down at his hand. Then, he swiped his hand across the air, this time with the intent of tearing it.

The same thing happened as before, and a little round hole appeared. He pushed the cracks of reality outward and they spiraled around the little hole—it was forming a wormhole. Intrigued, Transmutation remembered that that was the very thing that had sent him to Diagon Alley in the first place. He stepped forward, there was a jerk behind his navel, and suddenly he was sucked into the wormhole.

He was spat back out, much like falling through a doorway into a separate room. He sat there and looked around at his surroundings—it looked as though he was still in the exact same alcove. However, he noticed it was much more windy that day before he had created the wormhole.

Then, an object whipped around on the wind in front of the entrance to his alcove, before being plastered onto the wall, held there by the elements. Transmutation stepped forward and picked up the newspaper. He glanced at the headlines—they were meaningless to him—and then his eyes caught on the date. It read May 2nd, 2000.

He had somehow travelled in time—backwards two years. The wormhole must have been what had done it. One more time, Transmutation looked down at his hands. He had the ability to travel through time. But how could he control it?

…

"Well I must admit that I never imagined that the sphinx's riddle concerning a man needed three legs would ever apply to me," Stein sighed. He had only just woken up and Cisco had given him the cane with the powered splicer attached to it. "But if this device keeps me mobile, I will gratefully oblige."

"Well, hopefully you won't need it for much longer," Caitlin said, patting him on the shoulder on her way over to the computer, looking at the results she had received. "There was no agglutination in the blood samples and cross-matching was negative for both. And it appears that the dark matter from the accelerator explosion mutated their genes in a very similar way to yours. I think they're both potential matches."

"So who do we go with?"

"Well, my first choice is Henry Hewitt," the doctor told them. "He graduated summa cum laude from Hudson University with a double major in applied physics and bioengineering."

"A Hudson boy," Stein nodded. "I like him already."

"Now, what about this other guy?" Barry asked, looking at the screen. "Jefferson Jackson? High school quarterback, 4.0 student. He's got the physical attributes." He glanced at Caitlin, and then back at the screen. "And it looks like more of his alleles match than Hewitt's. Doesn't that mean that he's more compatible?"

"On paper, perhaps, but Hewitt is a scientist. Clearly he's trying to make something of his life. I think he'd be open to something like this."

"I think we should meet with both of them before making a suggestion," Harrison muttered.

"Good suggestion!" Stein smiled.

"I'll see if I can get Hewitt here," Caitlin offered.

"All right, then I'll go with the professor to meet with Jefferson Jackson," Barry said.

"And I will try to find something else to keep you stable," Cisco said.

"I'll help!" Harrison exclaimed, following after his friend.

They walked down the hallway towards the elevator. Harrison thought he heard a noise behind them, and glanced around—there was nothing. Then, as he followed after Cisco, a shadow appeared on the curved wall behind him.

…

A wormhole appeared in the middle of Diagon Alley. It was dark, so no one was moving about. All of the shops were closed until morning and the few residents that lived within the alley were setting down to sleep or cozying themselves in front of a warm fire to read a book or the newspaper. Therefore, no one noticed as a man was spat out on the cobblestoned street.

He picked himself up off the ground, dusted himself off, and walked over to where a few copies of the Daily Prophet laid in the top of a trash bin. He read the date—it still said the exact same date as before—May 2nd, 2000. However, some of the headlines were different. The only one that remained the same was the one that said, _"_ _ **PICKING UP WHERE WE LEFT OFF**_ _"._ Intrigued by why it was the only one still the same, Transmutation scanned it: _"Only two years to the day after the defeat of the Dark Lord and much has changed…_ "

The man set the paper back down in the bin and glanced around. Then, he decided to go find a friend.

...

"Hello," Cisco said, drawing out his 'oh' and coming to an abrupt halt at the sight of an unknown man standing in the cortex.

"Cisco, Harrison!" Caitlin exclaimed. "Dr. Henry Hewitt here already agreed to come to STAR Labs."

Harrison's eyes narrowed at the sight of the man—something about him was off. Harrison wasn't sure what, but he trusted his gut. He walked over to Caitlin and pulled her to the side, whispering, "How much have you told him?"

"Not much," Caitlin replied. "Just that we're giving him a chance at being a hero—I thought I would explain the _details_ with yours and Cisco's help. He only just got here."

"Can I talk to you?" he asked.

"Oh," she started, turning to Hewitt. "Excuse us."

Harrison dragged her into the next room and said, "Okay for starters, I don't think we should tell him about the Flash—"

"Oh, I wasn't planning to—"

"Second off, don't you think we should take this a bit slower?" Harrison asked. "Hewitt might not even be compatible."

"But we don't _have_ a lot of time," Caitlin argued. "I think Hewitt looks really promising."

Harrison glanced over at the man, who was smiling, talking to Cisco, and glancing at his surroundings with an expression of awe and eagerness. "My guts telling me not to trust him," he muttered. "Just—run a few more tests and lets _not_ tell him everything until we're sure."

Caitlin sighed, "All right."

…

"Caitlin—what's going on?" Barry asked as he and the professor entered the cortex.

"Hi, I'm glad you're back!" Caitlin smiled. "This is Dr. Henry Hewitt—Dr. Hewitt, Barry Allen and Professor Martin Stein."

"How do you do?" the professor asked.

"The illustrious Martin Stein," the man smiled. "I've read all your papers back at Hudson—especially the one on transmutation. Fascinating. You're a legend."

"Oh please," the professor laughed, looking down at the ground. "You're overestimating my contribution to the field. I…"

"Isn't he great?" Caitlin asked Barry as they continued to talk.

"He's got an ego the size of Texas," Cisco muttered, "but yeah he's all right."

"So where's Jefferson Jackson?" Caitlin asked.

"We need more time," the speedster sighed.

"We don't _have_ more time," Cisco retorted. "I couldn't find another power source for the cane—that thing's running out."

"Okay, then let's do the merge."

"Caitlin—" Harrison interrupted.

"Hewitt's in," she continued. "We've run all the tests we can. At this point, we won't know if he's compatible or not until we try it."

Harrison resigned himself to a sigh, rubbing his hands through his hair.

"Have you told him everything?" Barry asked.

"Not exactly," Caitlin told him. "Just that he would be merging with Professor Stein to save the man's life."

Barry nodded. They glanced over to see the two men chanting some song and clapping hands together, grinning. "Aw, look at that, that's so cute," Cisco smiled. "We'll have two Professor Steins if this works out."

"All right, let's try it," Barry decided.

Cisco ran and grabbed the splicer, and then walked up to Hewitt.

"Ready to try the merge?" he asked. The man nodded. "All right, when I put this splicer on your chest, you're gonna feel a rush. That's a molecular primer being released into your body. Then, you can make physical contact with Professor Stein, and—" he made a whooshing sound—"that's when the FIRESTORM matrix will take over."

Hewitt smiled. "Easy enough."

"Ready?" Caitlin asked Stein.

"No time like the present," he replied, smiling as well.

Letting out a breath, Cisco said, "Okay," and put the splicer on Hewitt's chest.

"Remember," Harrison warned. "We have no way of telling for sure if this will work."

The man nodded and took a deep breath. He laughed nervously. Then, he and the professor lifted their hands, meeting halfway in between each other. A fire flared, and then died back down. They both paused.

"Try again," the professor said.

Hewitt nodded, and then put his hand up against the professor's once more—there wasn't even a minute flare of fire. Everyone stood in shocked silence, quite unsure of what to say. Cisco broke the stillness by stepping forward, pulling the mechanism off the man's chest, and saying quietly, "Well, I guess you _aren't_ compatible."

There was a pause.

"Believe me, no one is more disappointed than I am," Stein said contritely, a sad look on his face.

"Yeah, don't be so sure about that," Hewitt muttered impudently. He stalked out of the room angrily.

Caitlin turned and locked eyes with Harrison, who was leaning on the door into the adjacent room. As she walked past him, she sighed, "Please don't say anything—"

"I won't," Harrison replied reasonably.

She sighed and went into the med-bay, sitting down on the bed. Professor Stein walked over to a chair, leaning on his cane, and sat heavily in it with a forlorn look on his face. Barry, Cisco, and Harrison both shared mixed looks of disappointment and knowing sympathy.

…

Transmutation looked down at the record book. It didn't make sense. He had just seen Creevey earlier that day. Well, it was actually two years and three months into the future, but still—if he had seen Creevey in the _future_ , then the man couldn't have died in the _past_.

But that was not what this book said.

" _Creevey, Colin …. Born Sept. 7, May 2_ _nd_ _, 1998,"_ it read.

By then, Transmutation knew that date—the day of the alleged "Battle of Hogwarts". The day some man named Voldemort was defeated by a man who happened to share the same face as a man Transmutation knew. How could it be that he died…? Transmutation's head began to hurt.

Unless…Perhaps it was possible that when he jumped through the wormhole a second time, it took him to the same place and time in a different _universe_. The man knew about String Theory. Nearly everyone—scientist or not—had some general idea of the thought of there being a multiverse.

It was then that Transmutation officially decided he would figure out a way to properly use this new ability.

…

"You wanted me?" Harrison asked, walking up to Joe's desk.

Both he and his partner, Eddie sat there looking at him. They both got to their feet as the dark-headed young man came to a stop. Joe made a gesture for him to follow and led him behind the stairs into an empty hallway. Eddie followed, one hand resting on his gun out of habit.

"You didn't happen to be at Mercury Labs last night, did you?" Joe asked.

"What?" Harrison intoned, surprised. "No. Why?"

Joe glanced around.

"Dr. McGee called us last night asking for me specifically," Joe replied. "She said that a man broke into the facility and stole something—you—Harrison Wells."

"Well, it wasn't me," Harrison argued. "Why would I steal something if Cisco could probably make it for me? Are you certain it was me?"

"She said she was positive she saw Wells—had known him a long time—Dr. McGee also mentioned he was walking again."

"The three of us well know that my imposter was perfectly capable of walking as well," the young man argued.

"You don't think he's come back, do you?" Eddie asked.

Harrison shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Okay," Joe muttered. "I trust you. Let's just keep this under wraps, and you definitely _do not_ need to go anywhere without some sort of disguise on."

Harrison nodded reluctantly.

…

"Thank you for coming," Barry said.

"I thought STAR Labs had to shut down," Jefferson Jackson pondered, looking around the cortex and the two adjoined rooms.

"It's under new management," Barry replied.

"Huh," the young man muttered. Walking forward, he asked, "Woah, what kind of treadmill is that?"

"Cosmic," Cisco told him, walking forward to look at it.

Jackson laughed, "Cool." Then, he turned around and walked briskly back into the cortex, rubbing his hands together. "So, let's get started. Do you have some sort of billion dollar technology that will fix my knee?"

"Actually Jax, this isn't about fixing your knee," Barry replied.

"What are you talking about?"

"When the particle accelerator exploded," Stein explained, "the energy wave that collided with you is known as dark matter."

"And it didn't just hurt your knee," Caitlin continued.

"It changed the molecular structure of your body," Stein told him.

"Woah, hold on Grey," Jackson interrupted. "So you're saying I'm like one of those meta-humans I keep seeing about on TV?"

"Yes, I am," Stein replied. "And please, call me Professor."

"We think you have potential capabilities," Barry told him. "Of nuclear fission and fusion."

"You can merge with a second candidate that matches your body-type well," Harrison explained. "The same as Professor Stein."

"And you can harness nuclear energy and use it as nuclear blasts!" Cisco informed him excitedly. "And—you can fly. There's also that."

"So you're saying you can do all this?" Jackson asked with a laugh.

Stein nodded. "When in convergence with a willing partner."

"Convergence," Jackson laughed. "You and me?"

"Yes."

Jackson paused, his smile still on his face, looking between the five earnest faces. Then, he let out another laugh, waved his arms in a dismissive gesture, and said, "No, this is crazy."

"Jax this is your chance to right the wrong that was done to you," Barry tried to explain.

"Yeah, sorry, you got the wrong guy. I don't want nothing to do with this."

…

" _What's being described as a spontaneous energy malfunction erupted last night at Eikmeier Technologies. Wanted for questioning is scientist Henry Hewitt…_ "

Harrison shook his head. "I knew something about him wasn't right."

"His dormant abilities must have been triggered when we attempted the merger," Caitlin theorized.

"This could be catastrophic," Stein muttered. "If his powers are anything like mine, requires a grounding mechanism to stabilize his volatility. Otherwise—"

"He's gonna pop his top," Cisco finished. "And he's got a long history of violence according to his police record."

"Police record?" Harrison asked, turning to look at the young man.

"I didn't see a police record," Caitlin remarked, sounding offended.

"Yeah, that's because it was sealed _,"_ the young man replied, "but guess what, ya boi hacked in and—hold on," he began typing on the computer. "Wait for it." He pressed a button and a file popped up with a picture of Hewitt on it. "One count battery, two counts aggravated assault, court ordered anger management therapy?"

"He seemed like such a nice guy," Caitlin sighed. "He even knew your Hudson nerd song."

She gestured half-heartedly to the professor.

"Well I think we've dealt with enough wackos to know that people aren't always what they seem," Harrison muttered.

"Tell me about it," Cisco agreed.

Then, they stopped as they realized the professor was gasping and choking.

"Woah, you okay?" the long-haired young man asked worriedly, hopping to his feet.

"Yeah," the professor gasped. "It appears Mr. Hewitt's stability isn't the only one in question. I think I need to lie down."

"I'll come with you," Cisco said with a concerned look on his face.

"Me too," Harrison said, getting to his feet and following as they exited the cortex.

"Thank you," the professor replied, putting his weight on the two young men.

…

"The splicer is wearing out," Harrison commented, looking down at the professor, who was sleeping fitfully in the med-bay.

"I know," Cisco sighed.

"And there's nothing we can do," Barry muttered.

Then, he looked up at the sound of footsteps, breathing, "Caitlin."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, good, you're here," Cisco sighed in relief. "This thing, it ran out like thirty minutes ago."

"His temperature is one hundred and forty-two and rising fast," Barry told her.

"He's going into rapid oxidation," she told them. "We need to find a coolant."

"I think it's too late for that," Harrison groaned.

Jefferson Jackson, who had been standing there watching the whole time, piped up and said, "I'll do it." They all turned and stared at him. "I'll merge with him. You said this is a chance for me to be a part of something bigger than myself—to help people. That's what I want."

"You're sure?" Barry asked.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "You said I could fly, right?"

"Damn right," Cisco responded.

"Okay," he breathed. "What do I do?"

Leading him into the cortex, Cisco said, "Well, here's the condensed version—"

While he was explaining to Jackson how it worked, Harrison, Barry, and Caitlin worked on getting Professor Stein up to merge.

"Professor Stein?" Caitlin asked, jostling his arm gently.

"Clarissa," he mumbled. "Five more minutes."

"No, Professor Stein," Barry said, coming up on his other side. "You have to get up. Jax is here."

The professor's eyes blinked open and he stared around at them blearily with a hazy look in his eyes. "What?" he mumbled, still partially incoherent.

"Jefferson Jackson," Harrison told him as the other two pulled the elderly man to his feet. Harrison put a hand on his sweaty back and helped them support him as they walked him slowly into the cortex. There, the young man was waiting on them with the splicer already on his chest.

Still leaning on the three young adults, Stein breathed, blinking blearily at Jackson, "You came back…thank you…"

"Well," he smiled. "Like my coach always said, 'Out of yourself and into the team.' So how does this work?"

"Okay, all you're going to do is touch him."

"And then what happens?"

"You become FIRESTORM."

"Okay."

He took a deep breath. Harrison back away towards Cisco while the other two pulled away from the professor as well, getting to a safe distance. The professor stood there unsteadily, a hand still raised in the direction that Caitlin had been standing. Jefferson slowly put his own hand forward, on top of the older man's. There was a brilliant flash of light as both of them were completely engulfed in flames for the briefest of seconds before the flams merged together and solidified into Jackson's body. His eyes were glowing white and his head and hands held a steady, stable stream of fire.

"Jax?" Caitlin asked. "Is Professor Stein—?"

"How will I know?" He paused and tilted his head, as though listening to something. "Oh, so I get Grey as my co-pilot." Caitlin laughed. The others smiled at the young man's infectious attitude. "So when do we get to take this for a test spin?"

There was a beep and Cisco ran over to the computer.

"How about now?" he asked. "It looks like Hewitt's recharging at Central City High School's football stadium."

Without waiting for more instruction, Barry ran off, taking his flash suit with him.

"Wait, that was where I got hurt!" Jackson exclaimed, taking off as well.

Harrison sat in a chair beside Cisco.

"You're not going?" Cisco asked.

"No," he shook his head with a smile. "I think I'll leave it to Jax to give him some experience."

…

"And how is Mr. Hewitt?" Stein asked as they all walked out of Jackson's house.

"It seems his last burst of energy burned him out," Caitlin told him.

"Our tokomak's gone dark," Cisco added, his hands resting on his head.

"We're keeping him in the pipeline until he agrees to keep his mouth shut about all this."

"So, you're meeting up with Clarissa, then?" Joe asked.

"We're meeting in Pittsburg in three days."

"Why Pittsburg?" the other half of FIRESTORM asked.

"A colleague of mine was monumental in helping train Ronald and me," Stein told him. "She's graciously offered to help the two of us as well." He turned to Caitlin, who still stood beside him. Giving her a hug, he sighed, "Oh, my dearest Dr. Snow. Ronald may be lost to us, but he will never be forgotten."

She smiled and pulled away, going over to talk to Jax and wish him well while Stein hugged Joe and Barry. He nodded at Eddie, not knowing him quite as well, and then came to a stop by Harrison and Cisco.

"I went ahead and recalibrated the splicer, so the merging should be a bit smoother now," the latter informed him.

"Thank you," Stein said quickly, taking a breath. "If I may offer you a bit of parting advice—Cisco, I know you're scared, but this ability you have is a gift. Not a curse It's natural to be apprehensive of the unknown, but look—look at Jefferson. He took a leap and it changed his life for the better. The very thing that makes you different is what makes you special. Tell your friends."

Cisco nodded and gave the professor a hug, who finally turned to Harrison. After one final hug, Stein clapped him on the shoulder and said, "I sincerely hope you find your way home, Harrison Wells." Unable to say anything as his throat closed up, Harrison nodded. Stein turned back to address all of the others. "And now I think it is time to take this show on the road, or more accurately, to the skies."

Joe laughed. The two men walked away from the crowd. Jax put on the splicer, which attached to his jacket. Stein came to a stop across from him and asked, "Are you ready, Jefferson?" The young man nodded and held out his hand. Stein met it and they merged into one. Jax turned to look at them, threw out his hands, and flew off.

"All right," Barry smiled.

"See you later," Caitlin said.

Barry turned off with Joe and Eddie heading in one direction while Harrison threw his arms around Cisco and Caitlin, walking towards where the van was parked. All three young adults were smiling.

…

Still in his Flash suit, Barry watched Caitlin walk out to her car. Nervously, he ran forward and opened his mouth. She stopped in the middle of opening her door and looked at him with curiosity. Before he could say a word, however he felt something grab him from behind. Caitlin screamed as he was lifting into the air by a giant hand. Attached to the hand was an enormous arm, which joined a huge shoulder just beneath—a shark's head?

"Zoom wants you dead!" the shark man spat.

Barry struggled, trying to pry the slimy fingers from his neck. The shark opened its mouth wide in a roar. Caitlin pressed a button on her phone and Harrison appeared with a _CRACK!_

"SOS?" he asked, looking around wildly. Spotting the man shark, he thrust out a hand to send him back with a wave of magic, which seemed to pass right around him. His eyes widened and he breathed, "Oh no…"

Laughing sinisterly, the shark man dropped the Flash and began advancing towards Harrison and Caitlin. Harrison shoved the woman behind him, readying his hands, but then the shark stopped as it was hit from a blast behind. Barry scrambled to his feet and stared in shock at the figure that stood a little way's away, turning from them and holding a glowing gun aloft in his hand.

He turned, and began to walk away. Barry ran to catch up.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Who the hell are you?"

The man turned around, pulling the hood off of his head, revealing a familiar face—it was Harrison Wells, only he wasn't wearing glasses. Barry stared in shock, glancing from the man to their own Harrison, who was trying to comfort Caitlin quite a few yards away.

* * *

 **Is Harry Wells anyone else's favorite?**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	21. Chapter 21

**I do not own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-One:**

They all stared at the darkly dressed man who stood in the center of the cortex with a gun strapped on his back, silent. He was flipping through a book. Then, he closed the book with a snap, revealing its cover, which read: " _Wells: A Biography_."

"Very strange to be holding your biography," he muttered. "Especially when you didn't write it." Cisco stared at him in disbelief. "And it's not about you."

He set the thick book on the desk beside him.

"Dr. Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Dr. _Harrison Wells_ …" Barry introduced. "Meet Dr. Harrison Wells from Earth Two."

Cisco and Caitlin stood together near the med-bay. Cisco's arms were crossed. Behind them, Harrison leaned against the doorway. Cisco's inscrutable expression did not alter in the slightest as he said slowly, "Hi."

"Hi," the man returned.

Caitlin was peering at him out of the corner of her eye.

"So, let me get this straight," Cisco muttered. "You're the doppelganger of this guy—" he pointed to Harrison—"who is supposedly the doppelganger of _our_ Dr. Wells, who killed Barry's mom and is responsible for Ronnie's death."

"Yeah, but he's not even the doppelganger of _our_ Wells," Caitlin pointed out, "because that Dr. Wells' body had been taken over by the Reverse Flash who was really Eobard Thawne, and Eddie's distant relative from the future."

"Yeah, I didn't follow any of that," the man muttered. "I'm my own man. I had nothing to do with the murder of your mother or your friend Ricky."

"His name was Ronnie," Caitlin corrected, sounding outraged.

"Him either," Wells-2 retorted.

"You told me you have proof of your identity," Barry said. "How do we know you're not just Eobard Thawne come back to try to gain our trust again?"

He walked over to the table to the side of the room and picked up a book, saying, "This almost hit me when I came through the portal. Your stabilized downstairs connects to the STAR Labs on my Earth."

"Technically, this could be mine," Caitlin replied, "but I want to run some tests on you."

"I'll be genetically indistinguishable from my Earth One counterpart. Your tests with reveal nothing," he replied.

"Great!" she said. "Still gonna run them!"

He sighed, "Be my guest."

"Why are we even listening to him?" Cisco whispered to Barry and Harrison. "How do we know that Thawne didn't come back? He never died, after all. It's a possibility."

"He saved my life last night," Barry replied.

"So did Wells—Thawne—Eobard…" Cisco looked down at the floor, annoyed. "You know what, I'm just gonna call him Bard." He looked up at the new Dr. Wells, who was adjusting the strap to his gun. "And I think I'm gonna call this one Harry."

Harrison shook his head.

"But the question is, why did he save me?" Barry continued. "I'm guessing you didn't travel all this way just to meet the Flash."

"That's exactly what I did," Harry replied. "I came here to help you, Barry. To stop your greatest enemy."

"He already did that," Cisco retorted, the same face that he had on before—a mixture of anger, sadness, and guilt.

"I'm not talking about the Reverse Flash," Harry muttered. "I'm talking about Zoom." Caitlin nodded, turning away. "I see you've already heard of him."

"Yeah, Zoom has been sending metahumans from your world to fight me," Barry informed him.

"Well," Harry replied, adjusting his shoulder strap once more. "They're the symptoms. Zoom's the plague." He looked back up at them. "One that's infected my world, and now he's coming for yours."

"What do you know about Zoom?" Barry asked.

"Everything," he returned. "I created Zoom. I'm responsible for all the Earth Two metahumans—a fact I've ignored for far too long. But now, I'm going to do something about it."

He took the gun off and set it in the nearest chair.

"Yeah, well, we're batting a thousand against the breaches," Cisco muttered.

"You're batting a thousand, Crisco? What's your sample size? Ten? Less? Zoom is obsessed with speed. He will never allow there to be another speedster in the multiverse. And he's gonna keep sending these metahumans here, one after the next, all with the same goal. To kill the Flash. Unless we stop him. Together."

Cisco looked at him with the same expression.

"How do we know we can trust you?" he asked.

Harry began to shake his head. There were three loud bangs behind them—gunshots. Harrison whipped around to see Joe standing there with his gun drawn. By the time he had turned back around, Barry stood in front of Wells-2, holding a fistful of bullets.

"Joe! Put the gun down!" he exclaimed.

Harry had his hands held up in defense, looking down at a stray bullet that landed at his feet.

"How is he still alive? How are you still alive?" Joe shouted, fighting his way forward as Barry tried to keep him back.

"Oh, I don't know," Harry muttered darkly. "Because you missed?"

"Hey, I'm trying to keep him from shooting you. You're not helping," Barry shot at him. He turned back to his step father, pulling him back towards the doorway. "Listen, let's take a walk, all right? It's all good."

"That went well," Harrison commented.

"We know someone who can verify everything this guy just said," Caitlin whispered to Cisco, who nodded. He was still staring at the man, who was now rubbing his hands down his shirt.

Harry looked up at Cisco and his doppelganger, and asked, "I don't suppose you have a Big Belly Burger in this universe, do you?"

Cisco finally stopped staring, slowly turned around, and whispered, "This isn't happening."

…

" _Come in! Helloooo? Harrison, are you there?_ "

Harrison ran forward to the microphone on the desk.

"Yeah, I'm here," he replied. "What's up?"

" _We have a breacher a Central City Bank!_ " Cisco replied. " _Barry's on his way._ "

"I'm on it," Harrison replied.

He straightened up, waving a hand over his clothes, changing them into his Midnight Phantom suit. Harry, who had been sitting at a desk across the room, flipping through Wells' biography again, glanced up.

"So you're a metahuman?" he asked curiously. Harrison nodded, pulling on his mask. "What Earth are you from?"

The young man shrugged and turned on his heel, disappearing with the usual _CRACK!_ Harry made a face and returned to his book. When Harrison arrived in the bank, he found Barry standing in the middle of the lobby, stared around, confused.

…

"Her name is Dr. Light," Harry explained, plugging in a drive into the computer, pulling up her info. "Small time thief on my Earth until exposed to the dark matter from my particle accelerator—became a metahuman with the ability to derive power from starlight."

"Woah, very cool," Cisco whispered.

"Stars having a temperature of five-thousand, three hundred degrees Kelvin and a blinding luminosity, I would say not very cool. At all."

Cisco made a face at him.

"Okay, so obviously Zoom sent her here from your Earth, like the others."

While he said so, Harrison attempted to sneak a hand into his doppelganger's Big Belly Burger bag to snag a few fries while Harry was occupied with taking a large bite out of his burger.

"Mm-hm," Harry replied. "And now we know that, we can use it to our advantage."

He slapped Harrison's hand as the young man attempted to take more fries again.

"How?" Barry asked.

"We capture Dr. Light," the elder Wells replied. "Then use her to lure Zoom here—"

"Absolutely not," Jay said loudly, walking into the cortex. "Okay, we are not luring Zoom anywhere."

"Apparently they know each other," Caitlin said, coming in behind them. "And Jay is not a fan."

"Well, well, well," Harry said coldly, setting his burger down. "Like everyone else, I assumed Earth Two Flash was dead. Why am I not surprised to find Jay Garrick here? Still alive, and in hiding—a full universe away from Zoom."

"I'm not in hiding," Jay hissed. "Zoom nearly killed me and stole my speed before the singularity picked me up and dragged me here."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Well, whatever the case," Wells continued. "In your absence, Zoom has only gotten more powerful—faster. Barry, you have to defeat Zoom now, while you still can."

"No, this isn't the time to be reckless," Jay argued. "We don't even know why Zoom sent Dr. Light here. She's a thief, not a killer."

"Zoom can make people do things out of character," Harry countered. He looked at Barry. "Thief or not, she'll kill you."

"All right, look," Barry interrupted. "Hey, we can decide what to do with Light later. First we have to find her. Okay?" He looked between the two men, who were still glaring daggers at each other. Harry grabbed his soda from the desk and slurped it, walking off. Barry sighed, and then walked over to Cisco. "Hey, how did you know that she was breaking into the bank?"

Stuttering and attempting to pull his phone out of his pocket, the long-haired young man replied, "Uh, I uh, got an alert on my phone. It's a little ring-a-ding. Everything there's like a robbery at the bank."

"What?" Barry asked.

Harrison shook his head, knowing all too well that it was probably Cisco's new ESPN powers that let him know. He glanced up and caught a glimpse of a very familiar, calculating look on Harry's face—Thawne had worn it quite often when dealing with Harrison.

"—but you know what?" Cisco was saying, trying to change the subject. "I think I can get the STAR Labs satellite to scan for any irregular solar radiation emissions and we can find Dr. Light's….light."

"Okay, I'm gonna also call Joe, see if CCPD has any leads," Barry said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He glanced between Wells-2 and Jay. "We don't we keep these two apart till I get back?"

"I'm sure that won't be a problem," Caitlin replied.

Harry and Jay were glaring at each other again.

…

Harry Wells was sitting at a desk, listening to music, and reading all about the past news articles from that world—the particle accelerator blowing, another one from a month after the incident, and a page that spoke of Wells (Thawne) confessing to Nora Allen's murder—post mortum. The young man with long hair—Cisco—slowly walked through the door, a grumpy expression on his face.

"Hey, Harry," the young man called. "Hey, over here! Hey!" Harry turned down the music. "Come inside. Use my work room. Use my computer. _I_ don't mind!"

"Thanks," Harry replied sarcastically.

"You and Bard certainly have different tastes in music—his were better."

"This Harrison Wells and I are very different, but similar in some respects. I see he made almost the same mistake I did with the particle accelerator."

"Yeah, well, don't say that around Harrison. He gets upset whenever we compare Bard to him—since he really wasn't Wells, but had killed Wells…Besides. He did a lot of terrible things—none of them were by _mistake_."

Harry stood up to face the young man, asking, "What did he do to you? I know he caused the singularity, murdered Barry's mother, blah-blah-blah-blah. What did he do to you? It's very hard for you to trust a man with my face—I suspect the only reason you tolerate my younger doppelganger is because he went through the whole ordeal _with_ you. You can barely look me in the eye. Why is that?"

As he slammed a wrench on the railing, Cisco finally looked up at him from the materials he had been glancing down at.

"He shoved his hand through my chest," Cisco replied. "He stopped my heart."

Harry laughed, "Ouch. Okay, that would do it. But you survived that?"

"Only because Barry reset the timeline," the young man retorted.

"He's travelled in time?"

"Twice."

Harry hummed and set the wrench down. He stepped forward and said, "Here's how it is."

"What's the deal?"

"You don't have to like me. I don't like you. But you have to work with me to stop Zoom and Dr. Light. Can you do that?"

"I guess we'll see, won't we?" he asked, pulling away from the hand bar and walking back towards the door.

"I guess we will," Harry replied. "One more thing…you said you're gonna re-task STAR Labs' satellite?"

"To scan for solar emissions, yeah. We're up and running."

"I'd like to examine your program—see if it works."

"Don't worry," Cisco muttered. "It'll work." He walked up to the cortex and as he passed Harrison said, "Harry's starting to get on my nerves."

"The silent alarms just went off at the Bank of Central City," Caitlin said from behind the computer at the desk.

"That's gotta be Dr. Light," Barry said.

"Could be a trap," Cisco commented.

"Okay, trust me when I say that Dr. Light is not a killer. You can talk to her," Jay pleaded.

Harrison was already standing with his super suit on. He nodded, "All right," and pulled the hood over his face. He reappeared with a crack just behind Dr. Light, grabbing her shirt as the door of the bank vault fell away in front of her—she had cut a clean hole in it.

Surprised she made her way to kick him in the shin.

"Incarcerous!" he cried. Ropes shot out of thin air, wrapping themselves around her.

"Looking for this?" Barry asked, standing by a giant pile of money. "I know Zoom sent you here to kill me. Good news, you don't have to do that."

"Not if I can get out of town with that cash," she replied, flexing her fingers.

"And then what?" Harrison asked. "Zoom's going to be displeased if he learns that you ditched him, won't he?"

"My friends and I can help you," Barry offered.

"Nobody can protect me from Zoom," she protested, wiggling her wrists a little. Then, her hands began to glow. The way they were caught by her side, they were pointed straight at Barry.

"Okay, why don't we take it down a lumen," he suggested. "Have a normal conversation, all right?" She powered down. "Thank you."

He took a step forward and the Midnight Phantom asked, "Can we lift your mask?"

She nodded. "The button's on the side."

Harrison leaned forward and pressed the button to her mask and it raised, revealing her face.

"Linda?" Barry breathed. "Linda Park?"

"How do you know my name?" she asked.

"I-I don't understand," the Flash muttered.

"This was a mistake," she muttered.

Guessing what was coming before it happened, Harrison snapped his eyes shut. There was a blinding flash of light—lighting up his eyelids and making him see red—and when Harrison opened his eyes again, she was gone and the ropes lay sizzling on the ground. Barry was kneeling in front of them, blinking and groping at the air.

"Are you all right, Flash?" Harrison asked, hurrying forward.

"I can't see," Barry gasped. "Guys I can't see."

…

After apparating Barry to the med-bay, he stepped back and allowed Caitlin to check him out. She shone a little red light in his eyes and he blinked at her.

"I still can't see," he muttered. "How long is this gonna last?"

"You're suffering from solar retinopathy," she told him. "Your retinas are severely damaged. You're lucky you're not blinded for life."

"But with your super-regenerative capabilities, your sight should return soon," Jay added.

"6.25 hours by my estimation," Harry said.

"Was that our Wells or your Wells?" Barry asked. He blinked a few times.

"—but all of this could have been stopped if you had just taken her in instead of chit-chatting with her."

"Ah, _your_ Wells," the speedster surmised.

"She caught Barry off guard," Jay argued.

"Always an excuse with you, right? He's the fastest man alive. How could she possibly do that?"

"She looks exactly like my ex-girlfriend, Linda Park," Barry replied.

"That's why Zoom sent her," Harry said. "He knew you'd hesitate."

"Well that means that Zoom had to have known somehow that Linda was your ex," Cisco thought.

"Which is why Barry has to act now, before Zoom brings another double from his life."

"All right, right now I'm more worried about Linda," Barry shot back. "When I saw who was under the mask, I said her name. What if Light didn't even realize she had a doppelganger until I said something?"

"The first thing Al Rothstein did on this Earth was kill his double," Harrison said.

Barry whipped his head towards Harrison, trying to pinpoint which Wells had spoken.

"Yeah, but Light's not like Rothstein," Jay disputed.

"We should keep an eye on your Linda," Harry suggested.

Barry's head whipped towards him. He rubbed his head with a sigh.

"I'll take care of that," Harrison replied. He still hadn't changed out of his suit.

…

Harrison and Eddie sat in a parked car outside of the CCPN building.

"I'm glad you agreed to stake out with me," the young man said. "Since Barry's blind, I figured a police officer would be my next best backup."

"Barry's _blind?_ " Eddie asked incredulously.

"Yeah his ex-girlfriend's doppelganger showed up and blinded him with starlight."

"Wow, a guy sure misses a lot when he's working," Eddie muttered, taking a sip from his coffee.

"Yeah, I know," Harrison muttered.

Silence fell and they both glanced around the street.

"So when are you and Iris getting married?" Harrison asked. "You've been engaged for over half a year now."

"Well, we were planning on a summer wedding," Eddie replied, "but we thought it would be best to do it next summer—you know because of the black hole. We didn't want to hold a celebration while people were still grieving. It was Iris's idea."

"Caitlin," Harrison nodded, knowing that's who Iris had been thinking of when she postponed their wedding.

They fell silent and glanced around again. Harrison froze at the sight of a person in his rear-view mirror—her hands were glowing. "Out of the car!" he shouted, his hand already on the door handle. Both he and Eddie jumped out and landed on the ground as there was a flash of light and the car flipped over a couple of times, sliding down the road. By the time they were clear to move, Light was already inside the building.

"Come on!" the Midnight Phantom shouted, getting to his feet.

They fought their way through the door against the flow of people running out. Inside was the editor of the CCPN, Linda Park, and Iris standing across from Dr. Light.

"She's coming with us," Iris was saying, stepping in front of Linda.

"Not today," Light replied.

"What do you want from me?" Linda asked from behind Iris.

"Your life," she returned.

Harrison skidded to a halt behind Dr. Light, Eddie hot on his heels, as the editor ran forward with a letter, knife. Light lifted up a hand in defense and skewered the man through the heart. He slumped to the ground. She gasped and stared at her hands, looking mortified.

"Stop!" Harrison shouted.

She spun around, throwing out her hand. He tried to dodge the blast, but just managed to get grazed in the side. He fell to the ground with a groan. At that, Eddie fired off his gun and shot the helmet off of the metahuman's head. Linda gaped at the woman who looked just like her.

"How is this possible?" she gasped.

"You just wouldn't understand," her doppelganger returned, throwing out a shockwave of starlight and knocked everyone left standing off of their feet.

…

The police arrived not long later. Joe rushed over to where Harrison lay, passed out while other officers zipped up the dead body in a body bag.

"Do we need to call an ambulance, sir?" one of them asked as he bent over the young man.

"Uh, no," he muttered, already pulling out his phone to call Cisco. "Arrange a security detail for Linda Park." The cop nodded and walked away, instructing the others. Cisco picked up the phone. "Yeah, Cisco? How's Barry doing? Is his eyesight back yet?"

" _Just came back a few minutes ago_ ," the young man replied.

"Tell him to get here now."

…

Harrison blinked open and sucked in a gust of air, instantly regretting it. His whole side was on fire. Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry were watching him worriedly.

"How are you doing?" Cisco asked.

"It hurts," he grunted.

He paused, glancing out at the cortex where he could see Harry and Jay arguing loudly.

"You're entire left side if burnt," Caitlin told him. "It looks like you were only barely grazed—you've got second degree burns. If you had been a few inches over, your tissue would not have been salvageable."

"Thanks," he muttered wryly, looking down at the bandage on his bare torso. Then, he glanced up. "My suit?"

"Gonna need repairs," Cisco told him. "Thanks a lot."

"—Zoom would have killed me, just like he will kill Barry if you keep leading him _down this path!_ " Jay shouted, his volume getting louder and louder. They all stopped to watch.

"No, because he is not like you. Barry's not a coward."

Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry, ran to the doorway of the med-bay as Jay threw a solid punch at Harry's face. The scientist was knocked into the desk behind him. "Guys!" Harrison said, craning his neck around them. "I can't see!"

Harry paused, and then spun around punching Jay back. Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco ran out into the cortex as the two men continued to fight. Kicking and shoving each other. Then, as they both had their hands on each-others' necks, Barry sped between them and shouted, "Enough!"

Jay shook out his shoulders with a sniff and Harry slowly lowered his raised fist. Before Barry could say another word, Harry stalked off out of the cortex. Barry glanced at Harrison before following after him. Jay, on the other hand, walked into the med bay and sat heavily in a chair, accepting the ice-pack Caitlin handed him.

"I'm sure I would probably be hard to hear from the man with the same face as the man you just had a fight with," Harrison said from the bed, pushing himself upright with his right arm—his left side hurt too much to bother using that side. "But I think Harry is right to some extent."

Jay threw down his icepack and gave him a reproachful look.

"Not about being the coward and all," Harrison back-tracked. "But I think you're both wrong on how to deal with Light—she was very close to listening to us until Barry recognized her face. But I think perhaps Barry should have questioned her here—where she couldn't escape again. That was a mistake on all of our parts."

Jay sighed

…

"Harrison, what are you _doing_?" Caitlin asked in an angry tone.

Harrison let out a hiss as he aggravated his side. He began to walk even slower, stumping slowly to the nearest chair and falling into it with a groan.

"I can't keep up with what's going on in there," he grumbled, leaning back.

"You're going to reopen the wound," she told him sternly. "Then it'll take even longer to heal."

He looked over to where Harry, Barry, and Cisco were standing around a cart with Light's mask on it, looking at him. "Don't let me interrupt you, gentlemen."

He said, waving his hand as a gesture for them to continue.

Harry turned back to the others. "I do know how to use the mask to find Light," he said, continuing their previous conversation. "All we need to do is give it to Cisco."

Cisco froze.

"Why me?" he asked.

"Because you have powers."

Caitlin's eyebrows rose in surprise and Barry scoffed. Harrison's eyebrows rose as well, however his were out of wonder for how his doppelganger could have figured it out.

"What are you talking about?" Cisco asked, shaking his head.

Harry whipped his wrist up and said, "I've developed this watch to detect metahumans." He stuck it in front of Barry and a little display panel popped up out of the watch, making a noise and blinking red. Then, he moved it in front of Caitlin—the sensor turned blue. "You never got an alert on your phone. You never reprogrammed the STAR Labs satellite. And this is why."

Finally, he stopped in front of Cisco and it blinked red, a little alarm going off once more. Cisco cringed, squeezing his eyes shut.

"He's a metahuman."

"Cisco," Barry said, starting forward. "You've known about this and you didn't tell us?"

"Yeah, I was gonna tell you," he snapped. "Thanks a lot, _Harry_. I swear—I was—but I didn't. I was just…I was afraid."

"I can attest to that," Harrison replied, raising his hand.

"You knew?" Caitlin asked incredulously.

"And Professor Stein," he nodded. "We figured it out a week ago."

"Why were you afraid, Cisco?" Barry asked.

"Bard said that the dark matter gave me this—this gift. He said that one day I'd thank him for it. What if I become like him? What if I become evil?"

"Oh, Cisco," Caitlin sighed. "I don't think any of us would turn evil if we got powers—even if they were from him."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," he sighed, turning back around to face them. "I should have said something. I'm sorry."

Barry was shaking his head and opened his mouth to say something as Harry interrupted, "Well you can be sorry later. 'Cause right now we have to use your powers to find Dr. Light."

"All right," he sighed. He slowly reached out a shaking hand and touched the helmet, his mouth hanging open and his eyes squeezed shut. Then, he pulled his hand back and thrust it back again, making a stressed noise. He slowly opened his eyes and closed his mouth, patting it lightly. "I don't think it's working."

"Try again," Harry pressed. Cisco swallowed. " _Try again!"_

At his sudden shout, Barry looked at him and muttered, "Yo."

Cisco put his hand on it one more time, and then said, "I'm sorry, it's not—"

" _Again!_ "

"I can't control it."

"Because you're afraid," Harry muttered, taking the helmet off of the stand.

"I'm telling you, I don't know how it works. I can't just make it happen!"

"And I'm telling you, _yes you can!_ "

He thrust the helmet into Cisco's chest and he let in a gasp of air, staring straight ahead.

"South Plaza Train Station," he breathed. "Platform Fifteen."

Barry ran off.

"I know you're afraid of these powers," Harrison told him, "but that was pretty cool."

Cisco smiled weakly.

…

"Dr. Light is safely locked in the pipeline," Caitlin said, walking into the cortex. Harrison still sat in the same chair, observing everyone.

"Nicely done," Cisco said.

"Wells," Iris said, walking towards Harry. "Thanks for helping Barry lock her away."

"So, what now?" Joe asked.

Barry breathed out hard. "We do what Dr. Wells said," he replied. "We use her to lure Zoom here. End this once and for all."

As he said this, Jay stepped towards him, staring at him like his head had fallen off.

"You can't be serious," he muttered.

"More breachers are gonna come," Barry said. "More innocent people may die. I can't let this happen anymore."

"Well, you're making a mistake, okay?" Jay asked. "Zoom is a nightmare you can't wake up from."

"I've already had my worst nightmare and that was the Reverse Flash," Barry retorted. "I'm not gonna be afraid anymore."

"Okay, Barry," Jay laughed. "You may be faster than me, but you're not ready to fight Zoom by yourself."

"I won't be doing it by myself," the speedster replied. "I'll have all of them…and the other Dr. Wells," he gestured to Harry, "and you."

Blinking, he shook his head and muttered, "No. I can't in good conscience help you when I know it'll only lead to you losing your speed or worse—your death."

"Optimism must be an Earth One thing," Cisco commented.

"You all need to ask yourself why this man, for years, wouldn't admit that he was responsible for the particle accelerator exploding underground. He may not be the Harrison wells from your Earth, but he has just as many secrets."

And with that, he left the room.

…

Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin all pulled up chairs around Harrison's bed and Cisco handed him a Flash latte. They all sipped their coffee as they sat around, talking to him.

"Thanks," Harrison smiled, accepting the coffee.

"I was beginning to get used to having Jay around," Caitlin sighed.

"Jay's a hero," Barry said. "They always seem to show up just when you need 'em."

"I still don't know how to feel about these powers, though," Cisco sighed.

"We're still here with you," Harrison smiled, taking a sip of the coffee.

"And now you need a cool name," Caitlin said.

"Snap, you're right!" Cisco exclaimed. "You're totally right."

"Oh, I gotta think this one through. Well, you know me, it's gotta be perfect. Something that really sings—something like…"

"Vibe?" Caitlin suggested.

"Vibe," Harrison smiled.

Barry repeated it as well, and so did Cisco, who said slowly, "I like it."

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	22. Chapter 22

**I do not own**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Two:**

" _Zoom sent me here to kill you_ ," Dr. Light told Barry. Harrison, Cisco, Caitlin, and Harry were sitting in the cortex watching the video on the screen. " _But I didn't want to._ "

" _But you were fine with killing Linda Park_ ," Barry commented.

" _It was the best bad idea I could come up with. Leave her body for Zoom to find. He'd think I was dead, and I'd be free."_

" _How was he supposed to know where to find her body?_ "

" _Just let me go,_ "Light muttered, staring up at the ceiling." _Let me disappear._ "

" _You would spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, never knowing when Zoom is coming._ "

" _Okay, then what's your great idea?_ "

" _How were you supposed to contact Zoom after you killed me_?" Barry asked.

" _I was supposed to give him something. Something I could only get if you were dead, and throw it through the breach as proof._ "

" _And then what_?"

" _And then he'd come for me. Confirm the kill and bring me home. Why do you care?_ "

" _Because I want to find him_."

" _You really don't_ ," she argued adamantly.

" _He's gonna keep kidnapping people like you, and force them to do what he wants_ ," he replied. _"I have to stop him before more people die._ "

" _You can't stop Zoom_ ," she said, shaking her head.

" _Yes I can. I will. But I need your help_."

Dr. Light looked down and nodded.

…

"So Zoom wants Dr. Light to send him your new emblem," Caitlin remarked, carrying a mug of coffee over to the main desk in the cortex.

"Yes, we need it for bait," Barry responded. "If we can get Dr. Light to take my emblem, throw it through the breach, then Zoom will come to collect my body and we can trap him."

"You know it took a lot of work to make that emblem, right?" Cisco asked.

"This is the woman who was willing to kill Linda," Caitlin noted, "in order to escape Zoom, but now she's willing to help us catch him?"

"She knows it's the only way," Barry replied.

"Before I left Earth Two, I worked on a serum to dampen Zoom's speed," Harry said, walking over. "All we need is for Ramon to develop a weapon to deliver it."

"Oh, great, that could be this year's cold gun," Caitlin muttered. "Maybe another criminal could get it, and then we'd have Sergeant Slow."

"I would never let that happen," Cisco mumbled. "Sergeant Slow is a terrible name."

"Are we forgetting how much more powerful than Barry Zoom seems to be?" Caitlin added. "I mean, if Barry can catch bullets, what's to say Zoom can't catch anything that he throws at him?"

"Surprise," Harrison interrupted.

"Yes," Harry nodded at him, waving his black-rimmed glasses at the young man. "If we use the element of surprise—all we would do would be to rig a projectile to fire as Zoom crosses through the breach. He can't stop what he can't see coming."

"That's great," Barry breathed.

"Thanks," both of the Wells said.

They glanced at each other.

"Joe," Caitlin sighed, turning to the detective. "Voice of reason here?"

"We need a plan," he muttered. "That's as good as any. As long as he delivers."

"Don't underestimate me, Detective," Harry retorted.

"Eddie needs us back at the station," Barry said, looking down at his phone. "I'll meet you there, all right?"

Barry went out to run to the CCPD. Once he was gone, Joe gestured to the lobby with his head, Cisco, Caitlin, and Harrison got up to follow him there. Harrison moved with a slight groan, rubbing his side gently.

"Are you just forgetting everything Jay told us and are supporting Wells now?" Caitlin asked.

"Oh, no, I don't trust _him_ at all," Joe dissented. "I just want to see what he's up to. I figure, if we give him some rope he'll hang himself."

"Yeah, I'm totally with you," Cisco muttered. "I think he's hiding something."

Harrison glanced from where they were standing around, whispering, to where Harry sat. He was at the opposite side of the cortex, sitting in a desk at a computer.

"Look, my hunch after interrogating suspects for years…." Joe muttered. "Something's not right with this dude." Cisco and Caitlin glanced over at him. Joe looked at Cisco. "Look, Barry told me about this thing you can do?"

"Oh, God," the long-haired young man moaned.

Caitlin laughed. "Vibing," Harrison told the detective.

"Can you do it with Wells?" Joe asked.

Cisco looked very uncomfortable as he replied, "I can try."

…

Harrison sat in the chair beside Caitlin with a grunt of pain. She looked at him.

"You know, you're lucky you've healed as much as you have in this amount of time when you keep aggravating your wound," she scolded.

"That because I healed it myself," he replied. "Sadly, though, I am not particularly talented in healing, so I couldn't do it properly."

"You have healing abilities?" she asked in surprise.

"I have a lot of abilities," he laughed. "It's hard to pin point what I _can't_ do—other than bring people back from the dead, of course. Nothing can do that fully and truly. There have been cases of reanimate on, of course, but something's always missing in the previously dead person in every case."

A video chat popped up on Caitlin's computer, displaying Cisco's face as he exclaimed urgently, " _Light's gone invisible! Lock the doors!_ "

Harry rushed over to peer over Caitlin's shoulder as she pulled up the building's security protocol. "The locks aren't working!" She exclaimed, continuing to type. "None of the security protocols are working!"

"She's hacked the system," Harry muttered.

"Cisco, Dr. Light is escaping!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"I've got it," Harrison said, getting to his feet.

"No!" Caitlin commanded, pulling on the sleeve. "You are _not_ allowed to crack out of here."

"It's called apparating," he told her, "and I'll be fine."

"No, you won't! You'll reopen your wound!"

Harrison sighed.

He sat back in his chair, rubbing his side again. Not long after, Barry sped into the run. "She's gone," he told them.

Cisco ran into the room. He bent over with his hands on his knees, panting hard. In his hands, he held Light's clothes. The young man walked over to the table against the wall and set them there. "Doctor Light managed to hack into the lights of her cell," Cisco said. "The whole building runs on fiber optics that operate on pulses of light. So, she turned off the dampeners and used her super powers."

"I told you how dangerous she was!" Harry grouched. "You should have listened to me and sedated her."

"I thought I had convinced her that helping us was the only way shed free herself from Zoom," the speedster sighed.

"Well you thought wrong!"

"Yeah," the Flash agreed, not even bothering to argue with him.

"Okay, look. Doctor Light is gone, so instead of assigning blame, let's try to figure out what we're gonna do next," Joe argued.

"Do you think she's gonna try to take Linda again?" Caitlin asked.

"I had Iris bring Linda to the house already, just in case," Barry replied. "How are we doing with the speed dampener?"

"I think we isolated the composite," Caitlin said.

"And we're modifying the dart Oliver used to take down the Reverse Flash," Harrison added.

"We don't even know if this thing works," Joe commented.

"We don't, no," Harry agreed. "This will be a field test, so can we end this scintillating staff meeting, and get back to work?"

"Or now 'bout I say what everybody's thinking—maybe it's a good thing Dr. Light is gone," Joe said. "Maybe it's the universe stopping us from doing something really stupid."

Caitlin raised her hand I a gesture of agreement.

"No," Barry retorted. "No. Keep going. I'm gonna figure out another way to get Zoom."

He turned on his heel and walked quickly out of the room. Harry turned to get back to work. As he left the room as well, Cisco turned to Harrison. "You think I should try to vibe him?" He asked. Harrison shrugged. Caitlin looked over curiously.

"We can go with you," she offered.

Cisco sighed.

…

Harrison and Caitlin waited in the hallway outside Cisco's work room, where Harry was at. Harrison cast a monitoring charm on the room. There was a moment of silence as Caitlin and Harrison waited with bated breath, and then Cisco said, "Hey." Harry was silent. "I just wanted to say, using the, uh, tungsten composite to dampen vibrations. That was…pretty brilliant."

There was a sound of a slight scuffle Harrison and Caitlin peeked around the corner to see that he had stood up, and he asked, "What are you doing?"

"I was trying to contractual ate you?"

"Don't touch me," Harry hissed.

"Wow! Try to give a guy a complement…"

"You're not trying to give me a compliment, you're trying to meddle in things that are none of your business. What did you vibe about me?"

"Nothing," Cisco replied.

"What did you vibe about me?" He asked again.

" _Nothing!_ " The young man insisted. "God, why? What's there to vibe about?"

There was a pause, which harry broke, saying, "Don't touch me. If you have questions, ask them. Otherwise, stay away from me."

Caitlin and Harrison poked their heads around the corner once more to see Cisco turning towards them, cringing slightly. He joined them in the hallway.

"God," he whispered. "You'd think the serial killer would've made a bigger jerk.

"What happened when you touched him? What did you see?" Caitlin questioned.

"Oh, I didn't see anything."

"Then go try again," Harrison insisted.

"No, he's onto me now."

"We have to keep trying," the young woman with them insisted. "I mean, Joes right. Something must have happened between him and Zoom that made this personal."

Cisco breathed heavily through his nose and the three of them began heading back up towards the cortex.

…

"Uh huh…yeah. Okay," Cisco said into his phone. He paused. "Nah, it's a wonderful idea. All right, I'll get on it."

Harrison looked up at his friend quizzically.

"Linda's going to pose as Dr. Light to lure Zoom here," Cisco told him. Harrison nodded slowly. He turned and rolled in his chair over to a table full of materials for Harrison's suit—he was almost finished with them. There, he picked up an extra pair of gloves. Then he rolled over to a table full of metals and wires.

"what's that for?" Harrison asked.

"These," Cisco grinned, "Are going to be a pair of gloves that appropriate Light's powers."

…

Joe walked over to a paper cutout of himself. He laughed and turned to Cisco, who was attaching wires to a separate cutout. "How long have you been sitting on this?" He asked.

Cisco turned the wired cutout to reveal that it was one of him making a face. "It's important to have hobbies," he relied, making the same face. Joe and Harrison both laughed.

A little ways away, Linda Park walked into the room, rubbing her hands together nervously and muttering, "This is ridiculous."

"No, it's not," Barry, in his Flash suit, responded. "You look just like Dr. Light."

"And with these gloves Cisco rigged up, you'll be able to do what she does," Caitlin added.

"Don't worry," Iris assured her. "They are totally safe."

"Ish," Harry muttered.

"Ish?" Iris asked,

"Oh, come on," Cisco said, "it's gotta be believable, so the really do fire and explode things. And you," he looked at the scarlet speedster, "are gonna have to let her hit you with those blasts once she gets the hang of it."

"Who exactly came up with this terrible idea?" Joe asked slowly.

"Okay, it's not a terrible idea," Harrison argued.

"Yeah, the suit can absorb the blasts," Cisco told them.

"For real, or ish?" Iris asked.

"What does a terrible idea look like to you people?" Joe asked.

"'Kay you know what? I like to think I can see the bright side of things! Okay, positivity people!"

"All right," Barry said as Cisco hit a button that lowered a bunch of cutouts of himself, Harrison, Joe, Barry, and Caitlin. "Just hit the ones that look like me, okay?"

"Got it," she replied.

…

"Okay, no offense to Linda, but there is no way she can pull this off," Caitlin muttered as the returned to the cortex after Joe, Iris, and Linda left.

"Yeah, maybe if she didn't scream every time she _fired_ ," Harry muttered.

"I know, she got off to a rocky start, but she _can_ pull this off," Barry replied. "Hey, did you find some place near a breach where we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way?"

Harrison and Cisco looked at each other.

"Yeah there's a place by the docks," Harrison replied.

"—it's usually deserted at night," Cisco added.

"Awesome," the Flash nodded. "How are we doing with the speed dampener?"

"My tests indicate that it should work," Caitlin told him.

"It will work," Harry muttered. "I'll tune up Ramon's gloves—make sure they work better."

"Okay," Barry breathed out. "Great."

"Hey," Cisco interrupted as the speedster began walking away. "We're actually going to go through with this?"

"Yeah, we're doing this. I'm gonna go have Iris get Linda ready."

Caitlin, Harrison, and Cisco looked around at each other. Caitlin's mouth was hanging open. Harrison shook his head.

…

Cisco and the two Wells sat in the former's workroom. Harrison was working on the gun to inject the speed dampener with—making sure it was fine-tuned properly, while Harry was working on Linda's gloves, as he had stated before. Cisco, however sat in his chair, leaned back and staring at the ceiling.

Then, the young man suddenly stood up and walked over to where Harry was sitting. He stuck out his hand for the older man to shake and said, "All right, I just want to bury the hatchet, and say thank you for all you work—"

Harrison looked up from his own work with curiosity, to watch the two's exchange. Wells-2, however, did not glance at Cisco once as he answered, "You're welcome."

"Okay," Cisco whispered, folding his hand into a fist and pounding it quietly on the desk. Then, he picked up a bottle of oil and said, "You know, I just think that the trigger mechanisms are stuck—"

"They're not sticking—"

"It just needs some—"

Cisco tilted the bottle down as Harry muttered. "It's not the—don't—no!"

The man sat back and raised his hands in anger as the oil spilled everywhere. "Oh," Cisco said quickly, "I'm just gonna clean that up real quick—"

He stuck out his arm and Harry shot out of his seat, jerking his arm away and shouting, "Do _not_ touch me!"

"I'm just trying to help!"

The bottle of oil fell over in the jostle and Cisco and Harry both stared at it for the briefest second before grabbing at it together, their hands overlapping. Cisco froze. Harrison leaned forward, wondering why he was so still all of a sudden. Harry didn't seem to notice in his anger, and wiped his hands off with a rag.

"I'm sorry," Cisco muttered quietly, slowly turning towards the door.

Harrison looked at his odd expression curiously and followed after, whispering, "Are you okay?" Cisco didn't say anything, shaking his head and speeding up. After they exited the room, Harrison asked, "Did you see anything?"

Cisco nodded, and then shook his head. "It's not good."

…

Harrison sat in between Caitlin and Cisco at the desk, very unhappy. He rubbed the back of his head in annoyance as they watched Linda walking around the docks, talking to Barry as they staged their trap.

"This is so annoying," he muttered, throwing his hands down. "I should be out there waiting on Zoom with Harry and Joe."

"No, you shouldn't," Caitlin returned. "Just a few more days, and you'll be ready to be out in action. I promise."

Harrison sighed. They fell silent and continued to watch Linda and Barry circle each other. "Next time we do this, I'm writing better dialogue," Cisco muttered.

" _Next_ time?" Caitlin and Iris asked in unison. Harrison laughed.

Meanwhile, on screen, Linda threw her hand out and hit a barrel behind the Flash. Barry looked from the blast to her in confusion, and then fell to the ground with a feigned shout of pain. Harrison put a hand up to his head—this was so badly acted, it was physically paining him.

" _Gotcha_ ," Linda said, walking forward.

He got up and they continued to fight—it beginning to look a bit more believable. Then, Barry fell to the ground with a roll, landing on his back with his eyes closed. Walking towards him, the Light impostor said, " _Told you. Zoom always wins_."

She grabbed the emblem off his suit, walking away from where Barry lay on the ground, and threw it into the air. A ripple appeared around it, and it flew through a breach. The wormhole continued to ripple and she continued to stand there for a minute with her arm raised. Nothing happened. Minutes passed. Iris paced behind them. Cisco flicked through different camera screens, Caitlin check her watch. Harrison slowly lowered his head, resting it on his hands.

Still, nothing happened as an entire hour passed.

As Barry fidgeted slightly, Cisco said, "He's probably waiting to see if you're actually dead. Any minute now, he's gonna strike."

Barry sighed and got to his feet.

" _No_ ," he muttered.

Harry got up from where he, Eddie, and Joe were hiding and knocked a bunch of dark objects to the ground with a clatter. He stalked off to the van with his gun raised above his head.

"He's taking it well," Harrison commented as Cisco turned off the video surveillance.

"Tell me about it," Cisco muttered.

Iris laughed.

…

"There you go," Cisco said, putting a new emblem on Barry's suit. "And it's like you think these things grow on trees, or something."

Barry half laughed, half sighed, "And we threw the last one away for nothing."

Caitlin walked over to Harry, who was watching the video of their "fight" again.

"You've been going over that footage dozens of times," she said. "Everything went exactly according to plan."

"If it had," he retorted, "Zoom would have shown up."

"Maybe Light was wrong," Barry suggested. "Maybe he can't see through the breaches. Or maybe he finally gave up." He answered his vibrating phone. "Hey. Hey Iris slow down, I-I can't hear you."

There was an alert on the computer at the desk Harrison was sitting at. He check it and then leaned forward while Harry's watch started going off.

"Zoom is on the roof," he told them.

"—He has Linda," Barry said as he hung up his phone.

Without waiting, he sped out of the room, changing into his suit on the way up.

"What do we do?" Cisco asked, turning in circles.

Caitlin went over and pulled up the program that monitored Barry's suit while Harrison pulled up surveillance footage of the outside of STAR Labs. "Cisco, we need sound," he said. The man in question hurried over and did a few things on the keyboard. As he did so, Harrison spotted Barry on one of the cameras. He pulled that one up, zooming in. It showed Barry and Zoom facing each other, standing about ten feet apart. Harry rushed over.

Looking at it, Caitlin said, "Zoom cannot be human."

"He is," Harry replied. "—or was."

Cisco looked down at it, mortified. "How the hell is Barry supposed to defeat _that_?"

Harrison leaned forward. He surmised that it was a man wearing a black suit—it had to be a suit. The black eyes and mouth sewn shut could not be real. The second thing he noticed was that the man's lightning was blue. It sparked around him sporadically. Then, there was a flash of yellow that streaked past Zoom—Barry.

"Why is he running away?" Harry asked.

"He's not," Cisco muttered as a yellow light streaked across the top of the screen again. "He's not scared."

The streak showed up again and again, quicker and quicker—he was circling the building. Zoom did not move. He stood, watching as his opponent gained momentum, crackling with blue lightning.

"Ooh, he's gonna thunderbolt him!" Cisco exclaimed with a smile.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Jay taught him how to throw lightning," Caitlin replied.

Harry stalked off.

"Hey, where are you going?" Harrison asked. His doppelganger didn't respond.

"Harrison—Harrison look!" Cisco said, tugging on the young man's arm.

Harrison looked back at the computer just in time to see Barry throw a bolt of lightning at Zoom, who promptly caught it and threw it back in the blink of an eye. Barry was pushed back into a sign against the wall.

"Woah," Harrison breathed.

" _Did you guys see that_?"

"See him catch a bolt of lightning with his demonic— _claws_?" Cisco replied. "Yeah, I saw that!"

Harry reappeared, holding a strange device in his hands as Caitlin muttered, "Jay was right, Barry can't do this alone."

Wells-2 popped the lid off of the gun, twisting it, and whispered, "He's not alone."

He raised the blow-dart-looking gun over his head and walked off. As he did so, Caitlin said into the microphone, "Run, Barry."

" _No_ ," came the reply. " _I'm gonna see if Wells' speed dampening serum works._ " He walked forward. _"What do you want from me?"_

" _Everything_."

"Okay, that's a little creepy," Harrison muttered.

After exchanging some banter, the two streaked off.

"How is Barry going to match Zoom's speed?" Caitlin asked.

"He's not, he's going to take it out of the equation all together," Cisco replied quietly.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked.

"Terminal velocity—the highest velocity reached by a falling object."

"Falling through the air?"

"Yeah, free fall fight. Their drag force equals the downward force of gravity, making the net force zero…making..."

"Equal velocities, that is genius!"

Harrison leaned back in his chair, resting his hands behind his head.

"Is this what you guys do every time we're fighting someone?" he asked.

"Basically," Cisco replied. He turned back to the computer screen. Wincing as the two speedster reappeared and Zoom proceeded to beat the crap out of Barry. Caitlin's eyes widened.

Harrison pointed to a separate camera that showed Harry not far off, saying, "Look."

Cisco put his hands up to his face. As Barry fell in one screen, Harry shot a dart out of his gun in the other. Zoom caught the missile and turned slowly to the man. Then, he said, " _Never forget. I am the fastest man alive_."

He thrust the dart into the Flash's chest. Looking at his vitals, Caitlin exclaimed, "He's killing him!"

"Barry," Cisco whispered.

"That's it," Harrison muttered, throwing back his chair. "I'm going."

Without waiting, he disapparated and reappeared outside the building. He spun and stumbled, unbalanced, and gasped for breath. His side lit up like fire. The young man grabbed it as he fell to his knees. Choking back the pain, he stood up, looking around.

"Where'd the go?" he asked.

Harry said nothing, turning away.

"Come on," Harrison said, grabbing Harry's arm, ready to apparate again.

"No," his doppelganger muttered, supporting his as his strength gave out again. "I'll help you." He looked down at his side. "You're bleeding."

Harrison gasped as he walked and it burned again.

"I know," he wheezed.

They made it to the cortex and Harrison fell into a chair, taking off his shirt and throwing off the soaked bandage. Caitlin rushed over and helped him to the med-bay, ready to administer a new bandage. While she did that, Harry asked, "Anything?"

"No," Cisco replied.

"Do you have him?"

"No."

Harrison sat on the bed and flinched involuntarily as she reached towards his wound with a cleanser. They were interrupted by a flash of blue. Caitlin turned around and Harrison gaped at the sight that they were faced with—Zoom standing there, holding Barry by the neck like he was a limp rag doll.

"Barry!" she exclaimed.

Harry walked forward, staring in disbelief.

"Harrison Wells," Zoom growled, staring at him. "You thought you could defeat me with this?" He pulled the Flash's mask off.

"I made a mistake," Harry whispered.

"Yes," Zoom said, drawing out the word into a hiss. He lifted his opponent to his face. "A costly one."

He stabbed a finger— _claw,_ as Cisco had called them (the description seemed very apt at this point)—into Barry's gut, and pulled it away, saying, "Goodbye Flash. You weren't fast enough."

Then, he froze and dropped Barry. As he let out a yell, falling to his knees, Harrison looked past the speedster to where Cisco was holding Harry's gun. The man wrenched the dart out of his neck, falling forward. Then, he ran out of the room.

"No," Harry breathed. Then, his voice raised to a shout. " _No!"_

Caitlin ran forward and put her hands on the Flash's chest, whispering, "Stay with me Barry…stay with me…"

Harrison slowly rose, one hand on his side, peering over her shoulder to see if he was all right. She then exclaimed, "Help me!" Cisco ran forward, grabbing the speedster's feet and she grabbed him under the arms. Together they lifted him and carried him into the med-bay. Harrison quickly backed out of the way, sitting hard on a nearby bench as Caitlin stripped Barry down, laid him on the bed, and hooked him up to every machine possible, putting on a neck brace after scanning his injuries. As he was beginning to stabilize, Joe rushed into the room. By that time, Caitlin was working on re-bandaging Harrison's side.

"This is your fault!" the detective shouted, pointing at Harry. "If Barry dies, it's on _you_!"

"Joe!" Caitlin exclaimed, looking up from her patient. "Barry's stabilized. Let's let him go."

"No, Caitlin," Joe shouted as he stared the man in the eyes.

"Why? What good does that do for Barry?"

"It's gonna help me."

Harry turned to walk past him and Joe shoved him into the wall.

"Joe, stop!" Cisco exclaimed. "Who's Jesse?"

Harry stopped and stared at him, his anger immediately sliding off his face. His jaw twitched. "How do…?" He walked forward, staring at the young man and gripping his shoulders. "Jesse's my daughter and Zoom has her. You've…You did vibe me."

"Yes."

"What did you see?"

"I saw your daughter," Cisco replied. "She was with Zoom."

"But she's alive?" he breathed, his voice choking.

"Yeah."

Harry backed away, letting out a breath.

"So Zoom sent you here like the others?" Joe asked, staring forward. His voice rose as he continued, "You kill the Flash and you get your daughter back?"

"The only way I get my daughter back is if I catch Zoom," he retorted. "Do you understand? You love Barry." He slammed his fist into the door post and said, his voice choking once more, "I love my daughter. And none of these children are safe as long as Zoom is here. I tried on my Earth to capture him. I failed. I thought I could bring him down here…with Barry's help," his voice was a whisper now. "I was wrong."

With that, he turned and walked out of the room.

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	23. Chapter 23

**I don't own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Three:**

"I can't believe it's Christmas," Harrison muttered to Cisco as the two of them sat in the cortex.

"I know right," the young man replied. "It's been a _year_ since you arrived—plus a few months."

"And you remember where we were last Christmas?" Harrison asked.

"We had only just met the Reverse Flash?" Cisco asked. "And we failed to trap him."

"Thawne was still around," Harrison added with a shudder. "Last Christmas season was when he figured out there was something different about me."

"You mean being a wizard?" Cisco asked. "For the record, I'm still not over that."

Harrison laughed. He leaned back in his seat and ruffled his hair. "Man, a lot of freaky things have happened over this past year—and it seems that the more time passes, the freakier they get."

"Like learning that your doppelganger was shot by Joe and Eddie's new admission to the metahuman taskforce—"

"You mean the _only_ addition to that task force. She basically _is_ the task force."

"I know right!"

But Cisco was right—that day had indeed been a strange one.

…

 _Barry was struggling with the idea of getting faster. After recovering from his injury that Zoom had given him, he thought of little else when they weren't on a case. That was when Harry and Caitlin began working together to develop something called Velocity Six. Harrison didn't know a whole lot about the drug, only that it was supposed to make the speedster._

 _That was as far as Harrison knew before an immortal killer appeared, chasing after Cisco's girlfriend. It was then when Harrison, Barry, and Cisco went to Starling City to get help from the Arrow. They were in the middle of_ that _case, when Cisco suddenly pulled Harrison aside and told him that Harry was in danger._

 _Wasting no time, Harrison made sure that the others didn't need him before apparating back to STAR Labs, only to witness Patty—the metahuman specialist—shooting his doppelganger._

 _Luckily they had Jay around, who took the speed drug to phase through Harry's chest and remove the bullet._

…

"And that's not even as weird as the talking gorilla, who returned from the apparent dead," Harrison muttered.

"And Harry wearing the Reverse Flash suit," Cisco breathed. "That was _freaky_."

And it had been. Harry had pretended to be the Reverse Flash to distract Grodd while Harrison apparated in and rescued the two of them from very angry gorilla—it was lucky that there was a portal that led directly to an ape sanctuary in a jungle on Earth Two.

"We get it," Harry muttered from across the room. "Your year was weird. Would you stop sounding quite so cheerful?"

"You'd think that after recovering from a bullet wound, you'd be more happy," Cisco argued, leaning around the computer to converse with him.

Harry said nothing.

"Hey, where's Caitlin?" Harrison asked with curiosity

Cisco shrugged. Then, he slammed his hands on the desk and said quite suddenly, "Have you noticed her odd behavior?"

"Odd behavior?" Harrison asked, his eyebrows drawing together.

"Recently she's been acting weird whenever Barry's in the room."

"Oh, that may have something to do with their supposed secret relationship, though I've known for a while."

"They have a _secret relationship?_ " Cisco asked, his mouth dropping open. "Since when?"

Harrison shrugged. "I just walked in on them kissing one day and they made me promise not to tell."

"A promise, apparently, that you are terrible at keeping," said a voice from the doorway.

Harrison and Cisco jumped, nearly falling out of their seats. From his desk across the room, Harry rolled his eyes. Standing in the doorway was Caitlin, who had her arms crossed. Jay trailed a little ways behind her.

"Is everything all right?" Jay asked.

"All's quiet on the metahuman front," Cisco replied. "I keep checking and….nothing. Hey, you don't think that Zoom's decided to take Christmas off, do you?"

"That would be nice," Harrison muttered.

"Doubt it," Harry called at the same time.

"Thanks, Patrick," Cisco shot back.

"Patrick?" Harrison repeated.

"Patrick Gates?" Cisco asked. The two Wells stared at him. " _National Treasure_ —your regular Johnny Raincloud?" No response still. The young man sighed.

"Anyway, we came in here to tell you that Jay might have figured out a way to close the breaches," Caitlin interrupted.

Harry perked up considerably.

"I was just thinking that if we could inject an unstable neutrino burst into the individual breaches, it might cause them to seal on their own," Jay explained.

Cisco raised a hand, saying, "I'll get on it."

Across the room, Harry threw off his glasses with a sigh. Curious, his doppelganger asked, "Is everything all right?"

"Of course," he replied with a tight lipped scowl. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Heh, ' _why wouldn't it be_?'" Cisco muttered with a small, annoyed laugh. Then, he turned to Caitlin and asked, "So what is this about you and Barry?"

…

"The Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, and the Trickster _all_ escaped from their separate prisons?" Cisco asked. "And now they're together in the worst recipe of bad possible. How is that _possible_?"

Barry shrugged.

"I don't know why the three of them were brought together, but look at the surveillance in Iron Heights." He clicked a button and on the flat screen TV appeared a video of a black hooded man pulling Snart out of his cell, which had seemed to melt away. Barry pressed the button again, and a wormhole appeared in the entrance to James Jesse's cell. The a hand emerged from it, grabbing James and disappearing.

Harrison's eyes widened.

"He's back," he whispered, unsure of what to do or think—it was the man who had been following him for the past year and a half—his only way home. But right now, in the middle of helping Barry fight Zoom, he found he did not want to leave. It was strange how these things worked.

"What?" Harry asked, turning to him.

Harrison wrenched his eyes from the TV screen to find that the others were staring at him.

"He calls himself Paradox," he told them. "I—I might have met with him a few months ago—before we defeated Thawne."

"What?" Barry asked. "When did this— _why_?"

"There was seismic activity," he said lamely. "I just went to check up on it while you were busy and Paradox was there. He—"

Harrison cut off, remembering the words the man had spoken to him after he had asked how he had known who Harrison was: " _Because I know_ you _…I—_ _ **created**_ _—you_."

"—he told me that we'd meet each other again."

"Why?" Cisco asked.

"I don't know," Harrison sighed, running his hands through his messy hair. "But I do know that he has the ability to take me home—that's what he tried to do that day I got injured and you guys found out I was the Midnight Phantom."

" _That's_ who you were talking about?" Barry suddenly interrupted, his mouth hanging open. "That guy was—"

"Uber creepy?" Cisco asked.

"I was going to say, really powerful, but close enough," the speedster replied.

"So what are we going to do?" Jay asked.

"At the moment, we need to focus on our trio of criminals," Barry responded.

"Oh, oh, light bulb, up here," Cisco suddenly exclaimed, waving his fingers above his head. "Most weather phenomena are marked, no pun intended, by a change in electric charge and pressure in the atmosphere. We could just map out those fluctuations to just—"

"Pinpoint his location," Barry interrupted, looking down thoughtfully.

"Right, it would just be a matter of removing all the electricity—"

"From his immediate surroundings," Barry finished, his voice overlapping with Cisco's as they said the exact same words.

"Attracting it to—"

"One spot—"

As Barry interrupted the third time, Harry slowly turned to stare at him.

"—the same way a lightning rod does, only instead of a lightning rod, we could use—"

Jay gave him an odd look, and Harrison's gaze bounced between him and his doppelganger.

"A wand?"

"Yeah," Cisco said. His smiled fell and he was silent for a moment. "Have we already had this conversation?"

"Kind of."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked.

Barry straightened up and his mouth open as he tried to form the right words.

"Uh…" he said loudly, his eyebrows drawing together. "All right, so the last time Mardon attacked, he um, generated a tidal wave that destroyed all of Central City—"

"So why aren't you all sleeping with the fishes?" Harry asked.

"Earth Two has _The_ _Godfather?_ "

"Every Earth has _The_ _Godfather_ , Vito," the older man replied.

"So I ran back through time," Barry continued to explain, "one day into the past, and I got a do over and stopped Mardon before he could hurt anyone."

"You shouldn't have messed with the timeline," Harry muttered.

Cisco raised a hand in agreement.

"That's what—" the Flash broke off, looking between the young man and Harrison. " _Bard_ said." He paused. "So the good news is, in that timeline you created the wand and it worked. So you just gotta do it again…for the first time…"

"So no pressure," Cisco muttered sarcastically.

"You've got it," Harrison muttered. "I'll give you a hand."

"Thanks," Cisco said, and the two of them headed to the latter's work room.

…

"So _Snart_ came and warned you that Jesse and Mardon are after you?" Harrison asked incredulously, receiving a nod.

"Uh, huh," the speedster replied.

A video then popped up on the screen. Harrison and Caitlin shot to their feet and the two of them, along with Cisco, Harry, and Barry slowly walked forward to stare at the TV. It displayed the Trickster, who was singing, "Flashy red-nosed speedster had a very shiny suit…and if you ever saw him, you might even want to puke—" he made a gesture of disgust along with a little noise. " _Merry Christmas kiddiewinks! I'm back. Citizens, you know the holidays can be a time of gentle reflection of the year past—our ups and downs, our triumphs and heartaches, but don't forget, it can also be a time for disemboweling our enemies_."

Jay, walking up to join them, commented, "We don't have a Trickster on Earth Two."

"He's one of a kind," Barry replied.

" _No, my stocking won't be completely stuffed until it's filled to the brim with bloody Flash parts_ ," the nit continued with a grin. _"What do you say, speed freak? You want to roast chestnuts?_ "

The picture cut out, showing the news program, and then reappeared. It continued to do so, blinking on and off. Barry stepped forward and asked, "Is there any way to figure where he is, based on the video?"

"I don't think there is," Cisco replied, wandering over to a computer to isolate the picture of the Trickster.

"Guys," Jay interrupted. "There's a reflection of something in his cornea. See?"

They all squinted at it and Cisco worked on zooming in on the man's eyes.

"What is that?" Barry asked.

"I'm not sure," Caitlin said slowly.

Harry stepped forward. As Cisco zoomed in a few more times, he said, "That's Mr. Jiggle Wiggle."

They stopped and looked at him.

"Come again?" Cisco asked.

"It's a doll," he returned. "Stuffed children's toy. I gave one to my daughter when she was six."

As he said this, Harrison walked over to the computer and typed away, saying, "Mr. Jiggle Wiggle was manufactured by Okamura Toys."

Cisco looked over his shoulder.

"Yahtzee!" he exclaimed. "Okamura once had a shipping facility in Central City that shut down four years ago. It's been abandoned ever since. What if Weather Wizard's there? The wand's not finished."

"No? The Trickster is," Barry replied.

"And I could handle Mardon," Harrison said, standing.

…

As a light flashed in their eyes in the dark facility, both heroes froze. Harrison squinted and picked out that it was the meta-human task force woman.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed, not exactly a fan of her as she had almost killed his doppelganger.

"Same as you," she whispered. "Trying to catch a murderer."

All three of them jumped as a sound kicked in to their left. Patty shown her light on it and they saw that it was a doll with a little box strapped to her front, singing, " _Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay…_ "

Speaking over the singing was the Tricksters voice.

" _We can't let Christmas hog all the holiday fun! Happy Hanukkah!"_

The Flash, the Midnight Phantom, and Patty Spivot stared in confused amazement as hundreds of little dreidels spun out of the farthest reaches of the room towards them.

" _Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel,_ " continued the Trickster as the doll still sang. " _I made you out of C-4! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!_ " The three of them backed together in a circle, surrounded. _"We are definitely looking at a closed-casket funeral_."

"This is like a scene out of a video game gone wrong!" Harrison shouted.

"What should we do?" Patty asked.

"Uhhhh," Harrison trailed off. "Grab onto me!"

As he felt two pairs of hands grab his elbows, he disapparated. When they landed outside the building, Patty bent over and sucked in a gasp of air.

"Well, I'm going to have nightmares for weeks," Harrison muttered.

The building behind them exploded.

"What's more fun than a dark abandoned warehouse full of creepy singing dolls and bombs?" Barry asked, spreading his hands wide.

…

Harrison set the wand he and Cisco had made in a stand in the cortex and looked up at the Flash.

"Barry," he said, getting the man's attention. "How does it look?"

"Eerily familiar," the speedster replied.

Behind them, Cisco said, "Atmospheric pressure just dropped two hundred heptopascals."

"Where?"

"It looks like—Central City Square."

"The tree lighting ceremony," Caitlin breathed.

"There's thousands of people there," Barry nodded.

He walked over, grabbed the wand, and ran off. Harrison followed. They both came out of a rooftop, where Mardon was standing on the edge, facing them.

"Oh, glad to see you," the crook said. "Maybe you can help me."

"Help you get back to a jail cell?" Barry asked. "It'd be my pleasure."

"No, you see I'm trying to decide if I should kill those people down there with hail or—a little trickier—acid rain. What do you think?"

"How about neither?" Harrison retorted.

"Yeah," Barry agreed, waving the wand at the man. "You see this wand here? Guess what—"

He broke off as the man fell off the side of the building.

"Looks like no monologues for the Flash today," Harrison said as they both ran forward to peer over the railing.

Mardon was floating on pockets of air.

"He's flying?" Barry asked.

" _He can fly?_ " came Caitlin's voice. _"Since when can he fly_? _"_

" _Well, technically_ ," Cisco added, _"he's using his powers to alter the air pressure around him to create updrafts that can—_ "

" _No,_ " Harry interrupted. " _He can fly_."

Harrison laughed, and then patted Barry's arm after figuring out where the man was heading. "Let's go," he said, turning on his heel.

He reappeared down in the square and watched as Mardon flew closer, a streak of light following him. Then, Barry ran up beside Harrison and held out the wand. Mardon fell to the ground as the pockets of air were siphoned into the wand. People ran away screaming. Mark Mardon rolled over with a groan of pain.

"You didn't really think I'd let you hurt all these people, do you?" Barry shouted over the noise.

"Quit stalling!" Harrison shouted. "Just grabbed him and run!"

They both stopped as a little green and red box slid on the ground between them.

"Feliz Navidad!" the Trickster exclaimed. He was sitting on a chair nearby wearing a Santa suit. "Time for a real war on Christmas!"

They both looked down at the box.

"What is it?" Harrison asked.

"That, is a bomb," Mardon replied with a smile.

"Yep," Jesse smiled, adjusting himself and sticking an enormous candy cane in his mouth. "I've handed out about a hundred of them today. It feels so good to give."

"See, right now there are a hundred random children that've each taken home a box just like that one," Mardon said. "They're shoving it under their Christmas tree. There's no way for you to get to all of them. Even if you knew where to look."

"No, no, please," Barry begged. "Don't do this."

"What, me?" Mardon asked. "Kill a hundred families? No, that's up to you. I'm happy just to take your life. So, this is how it's gonna be. You're gonna let me kill you," He turned his finger to Harrison as he continued, "and you're not going to do anything about it. If you do the casket makers in this town are gonna have a very merry Christmas. What do you say?"

Harrison and Barry shared a look. Barry nodded, "All right."

"You're not really gonna let him do this, are you?" Harrison asked. "We could handle it!"

"No," Barry sighed. "He's right—we can't get them in time."

He handed Mardon the wand. Harrison stared incredulously between the two. Then, without wasting a second, the young man apparated to STAR Labs.

"They're gonna kill him, we have to do something!" he exclaimed. "Cisco?"

"There's no way," the long-haired man breathed.

"There is a way," Harry said, facing away from them with his arms crossed.

"To find a hundred randomly placed bombs?"

"We don't have to find a hundred," the older man replied. "We just have to find one and get rid of them all."

"How?" Harrison asked.

"A breach," Jay said.

"That's right," Harrison assented. "We sent Grodd away, and we can do the same to these bombs—all of them—do you have a drone in your workshop?"

"Yeah," Cisco replied.

"Does it fly?" As he received and affirmative, he nodded. "Good. I'm taking it. You're not getting it back."

"I'll cross-reference toll road usage with families with children under the age of ten," Cisco said, cracking his knuckles and typing on his keyboard. Hold up…got one!"

"Okay, I got this," Harrison said as his doppelganger returned with the drone.

He grabbed the man's arm and apparated to the location on Cisco's screen. Harry dusted himself off and stepped forward to ring the doorbell. Harrison wondered what they looked like to the young boy who opened the door—two identical men standing there, one with a pair of clear glasses and the other who said, "Your toys…give them to me."

The boy stared at them, his mouth falling open. And then, he called, "Mom!"

…

Cisco, Harrison, and his doppelganger found a breach. The wizard took them to the site where Harry set down the red and green present he had taken from the young boy's house. He untied the ribbon and carefully slid an object out of the box.

"Harry, what is the plan?" Cisco exclaimed.

"One of the fifty-two breaches opened by the singularity is a quarter mile directly above this city, and we are going to use your drone to drop the bomb into that breach."

"How does that work?" Harrison asked curiously.

"One down, Ninety-nine left to blow," Cisco muttered.

"Basic physics," Harry replied. "Magnetism." Cisco stared at him. Harrison glanced at him, finally figuring out what he was doing. " _Magnetism_. Magnets of opposite poles attract each other. Help me out!"

He gestured to Harrison, who said, "If we can change the dimensional energy of the bomb and get it through the breach—"

While he was speaking, Harry was working on attaching the bomb to the drone.

"We can drag all of the others with it," Harry finished. "I'll drive." He grabbed the controls to the drone. "Okay, hold on."

As he pressed his thumbs on the controls, the drone rose up into the air. A ripple flare in the air as the drone flew up into it. Once it disappeared, there was a clattering sound and ninety-nine red and green boxes flew towards the breaches after their friend. There was an explosion in the sky.

"It's working!" Cisco exclaimed, hitting Harry on the shoulder excitedly. Harrison laughed. As the explosion disappeared with the wormhole, Cisco lifted his phone up to his mouth and exclaimed, "Barry, the bombs are gone!"

With a smile, Harry slapped the controls to the drone into Cisco's chest. The one man promptly grabbed them. "All right," Harrison said, grabbing their elbows. "Let's go."

…

"A new Wells carries on the tradition of not going to the West's parties," Harrison muttered, looking around.

Iris nodded sadly.

"So you did invite him?" she asked.

"Him and Jay," Harrison replied, pointing to where Jay was standing, talking to Joe.

Cisco took a sip of eggnog, sitting on the couch by Eddie and Iris, who were kissing under the mistletoe that Caitlin had hung. Barry sat by the tree, sipping out of his own mug. They all stopped as there was a rapping on the front door.

"Are we expecting anyone else?" Joe asked.

"Not that I know of," Iris replied.

"I don't know, maybe Harry changed his mind," Barry suggested.

Joe walked over to the door and pulled it open. The others looked to see what was going on—there was a young man standing in the doorway nervously. Joe and the young man stared at each other for a second, before the boy said awkwardly, "Hi, I'm Wally. I'm Francine's son." He shifted from one foot to the other. Iris stepped forward slowly.

Harrison looked at Barry inquisitively.

"Francine is Joe's…ex-wife," Barry told him. "She was pregnant when she left Joe and Iris and only just came back recently." Harrison nodded.

Stammering, Joe reached out to shake Wally's hand and said, "I'm Joe." He put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "This is Iris."

"Hi," she whispered.

"Hi," Wally returned.

He looked back at his father and said slowly, "I just wanted to…I-I don't know—I guess now's a bad time. You've got company so…"

"No!" Joe exclaimed. "No, no, no, come in."

And the young man stepped into the house, Joe shutting the door behind him. The party picked right back up where it left off, Wally receiving his own mug of eggnog. Drinking his, Harrison smiled and reflected back on his year—it wasn't what he had necessarily wanted, but it wasn't bad either.

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	24. Chapter 24

**I don't own**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Four:**

Transmutation stumbled around Central City in confusion. After figuring out how to control his universe-jumping ability, he had made his way back to his home. He had made it back to the correct universe—or at least, he was partially certain he had—but something was wrong. The city looked different. His apartment was owned by someone other than him.

He found a newspaper and quickly ascertained that it was 1976.

Transmutation mused thoughtfully, setting the paper down in the trash can he had found it in. How had he come out forty-two years too early? Harrison Wells wouldn't even have been born yet…would he? He mathed it out and decided that he had indeed been born by 1976—he would be a child. Harrison Wells as a child? Transmutation had to see that. Curious, the man decided he could spend some time in the seventies before going forward to 2015.

…

Harrison sat in Cisco's workroom with his feet propped up on his friend's desk, reading a book on String Theory. His doppelganger stood across the room, scribbling on a clear board. He looked up as there was a clattering sound—Harry had knocked a bunch of materials off of the shelf next to him on the floor. Harrison glanced around, his eyes catching on Cisco, who was walking into the room and exclaiming, "Hey! No—Absolutely not! You don't get to throw other people's stuff when you're pissed off."

He stooped and picked up the materials. As he did so, Harry looked straight at him, walked to the other shelf, and knocked more things into the floor. Harrison shook his head. Sometimes his doppelganger reminded him of a rebellious four-year-old who was constantly throwing temper tantrums.

"Thank you," Cisco muttered sarcastically, continuing to pick up fallen junk. Then, he walked forward and looked at the board. "What is this?"

"Wrong answers," Harry muttered, wiping off the marker.

As he erased, Cisco said, "Maybe you're asking the wrong questions."

"what does that mean?" The older man asked.

"We keep trying to find ways to make Barry faster—" Harrison interrupted.

"I just think we should find another way to make Zoom slower," Cisco added.

"Yeah we tried that," Harry retorted. "The darts didn't work, remember?"

"I know, I'm not talking about the darts, okay?" Cisco responded.

"They obviously didn't work," Harrison piped up behind them.

"Yeah, they just pissed him off," his friend agreed. "I'm talking about something else. A way we can steal Zooms speed."

Harry finally turned from the board and stared at him in bitter surprise.

"How?" He whispered.

"The Turtle."

…

"As some of you may well know, I've been deeply embroiled in a secret, one sided battle with an invisible enemy," Cisco said, turning to the others with his hands clasped behind his back. Harrison shook his head and put it into his hand.

"Oh, not the Turtle again," Caitlin moaned from beside him.

"What?" Barry asked. "What is the—or _who_ is the Turtle?"

"It's Cisco's white whale," the girl replied.

"Half whale, half turtle," Harrison muttered.

" _No_ ," the young man said forcefully. "See what you're doing? Now you're just confusing everyone."

"Get to it," Wells-2 interrupted.

"I stumbled upon a few of these cases when we were looking for the Reverse a Flash," Cisco explained, pressing a button that pulled up a newspaper on the TV closest. "Robberies that were seemingly committed at high speed. People holding their beloved items one second, and the next they were gone. Tell me what you see."

He clicked the button again and a video popped up. It showed a completely still room as a man in a green hoodie walked through.

"So he can, what, stop time?" Caitlin asked.

"The clock is still running," Harrison noted, shaking his head as he looked at the video's length.

"Yeah, okay, so if he's not stopping time, what is he doing?" Barry questioned as Jay walked from behind the desk to look at it more closely.

"He's slowing down everything around him," Cisco informed them. "And that is why we call him the Turtle."

"Why haven't you mentioned this guy to me before?" Barry asked.

"Oh, I don't," Cisco said, scratching his head, "I think we've just been a little distracted, what with, you know, Captain Cold, and the Weather Wizard, and Gorilla Grodd. Do I need to go on?"

"Okay so if we could catch him," Jay mused, "find out how he uses his powers—"

"We could show Zoom what life is like in the slow lane!" Cisco exclaimed.

"How would you even know where to find him?" Harry asked.

"Well, the robberies in the videos all correspond with police reports that were dismissed as "lost or missing items" instead of thefts."

"The suspects MO being..?"

"Items of immense value," the speedster replied.

Using his super speed, he began typing on the computer. As he viewed the results, his eyebrows receded slightly, and then he ran off. Curious, Harrison wandered over to the computer and informed the others, "It looks like the CCPD is currently holding a press conference celebrating the return of Vandervoort diamonds."

Cisco leaned over his shoulder and muttered, "From hell's heart, I stab at thee…"

…

Harrison appeared next to Barry wearing his Phantom suit. The two men stood in the upper level of the CCPD, looking down at the officers below. There, Singh was giving a speech.

"What have we got?" Harrison whispered.

"Hoodie, over there," Barry replied, pointing to a man who was standing near the wall, wearing a hoodie.

"—getting that returned to the family is what's most priceless to me," Vandervoort was saying.

The man in the hoodie stepped forward slowly. Then, it seemed as though green waves of energy pulsed out of him. Wasting no time, Barry ran down the steps, slowing down to a near halt as the green waves reached him. He looked back up at Harrison. The green waves had reached the man and he was standing completely frozen. The Turtle walked by the Flash and winked at him. As he left, the energy was gone and Barry found himself shooting off towards where the Turtle had been.

Up on the second landing, Harrison was looking down at the scene below him, confused. When had Barry gotten down there? The man in the hoodie was completely gone. Upon further inspection, he realized the ring with the Vandervoort diamonds was gone as well.

"We missed him," Harrison muttered into his coms.

…

"Well, the good news is, whatever the Turtle did, it only affected you temporarily…"

Caitlin walked out of the med-bay from where she had been checking Barry out. As Barry walked into the cortex, Cisco called, "Yo, what was it like? Being in Turtle Time?"

"Yeah, no, it was weird," Barry replied. "It was like waves of inertness. Like all of the energy was suddenly sucked out of my body, and then it would return."

"That's because that's exactly what was happening," Harry piped up from behind them. "He has the ability to transfer all the surrounding kinetic energy into himself."

"Leaving everyone else in a temporary state of potential energy," Jay added.

"That's right," Harry said, picking up a notebook and writing something down in it.

"So why could I still move?" Barry asked.

"Your speed," Harry said, looking up from his notebook. "Your speed allows you to change positions faster than anyone else."

He flipped his notebook closed, wandering over to a door to an adjacent room.

"So, you can convert your stored potential energy into kinetic energy," Jay explained.

"Excuse me, where are you going?" Cisco asked, stopping Harry as he began to open the door.

"Trying to figure out how to use this against Zoom," the older man returned grimly. "You remember Zoom?"

He opened the door with a click and shut the door behind him.

"'Cisco," Cisco muttered sarcastically, "please join me. I'll use your ideas and take it to new scientific heights and save the world.' Yes, I'd _love_ to!"

As he walked off unhappily, Barry and Harrison stifled chuckles.

"All right, the facial recognition software just came back," Caitlin told them. "The Turtle was ID from the video at the CCPD. His name is Russel Glosson. He was a small time thief until after the particle accelerator explosion—then he stopped stealing."

"All right," Barry muttered. "I'm gonna go to the CCPD—catch Joe up."

As he wandered out of the room as well, Harrison looked up at the picture of the man from the police department. It irked him that while he was stuck in Turtle Time—body and mind completely frozen to the point that it felt as if no time had passed at all—Barry could still move. It seemed like this was a case for the Flash. He slumped. Harrison supposed he _could_ be of help at the computers talking to Barry. That's what everyone else did, after all.

…

Harrison Wells didn't exist? How….how was that _possible_? No, it wasn't possible. Transmutation himself had seen the man. He _knew_ he existed. So, what? Had he somehow come out in the wrong dimension? That didn't make sense. Everything on the Earth he was on checked out—everything _except_ the fact that Harrison Wells didn't exist.

Which wasn't possible.

Making up his mind, Transmutation decided to jump into the future. The man tore a wormhole into the air, stepping into it. He traveled to the future as images streamed past him, he focused on his own time and found himself there.

Once Transmutation had gotten the hang of wormhole-travelling, it was quite easy. He could now tell the difference between traveling dimensions and traveling through time: When he traveled to other worlds, it felt like stepping through a doorway—falling through a mirror. On the other hand, time travel felt like being shot forward in a cannon. As long as he focused on the time period he wanted, he would theoretically get there in the blink of an eye.

When he came out in his own time, he poked around. His apartment, though seeming to have been abandoned for a week or so, belonged to him once more. There were newspapers online about metahumans and—even further back—Harrison Wells and the particle accelerator. That was strange, he was _absolutely certain_ he had not changed dimensions this time. Why would Harrison Wells exist in the future, but not in the past? Just to make sure, the man looked Wells up and determined that he had in fact been born in 1972—two years earlier from the time he had been in—his parents, Sophia and Adam Wells.

This still did not explain why Wells hadn't been there in 1976, when he should have been four years old. Then, Transmutation realized the answer. Harrison Wells _didn't_ exist. At least, not in that time. He actually existed _as the person,_ Harry Potter. The man just hadn't realized who he truly was. He needed someone like Transmutation to show him his true potential.

…

"Hey, you guys got anything?"

"I think we found our next target for our thirty-something-metahuman-not-a-ninja-turtle," Cisco replied, opening his mouth wide in excitement as he finished speaking.

"How long did it take you to come up with that one?" Caitlin asked.

He pointed at himself and said, "It just came out of my mouth. Did you see that? That was amazing." He turned back to Barry. "Central City Museum is hosting a black tie event tonight showcasing _The Crystal Ball_."

Barry looked at him in a confused manner.

"Oh, it's a famous painting apparently," Jay said.

"—Recently recovered from Markovia," Harrison finished.

"The painting is on loan to the museum by the Silverberg family," Cisco continued. "Jacob Silverberg himself said, 'The painting's safe return means more to us than all the money in the world.' It's like they're _begging_ Turtle to rob it!"

"Okay, yes, this is a plan," Barry agreed. "So the Turtle will make his move, and we can be waiting there to take him down."

"How do you look in a tux?" Caitlin asked with a smile.

"Come on," Cisco muttered. "This is Barry we're talking about. He can pull off dorky sweaters looking on _point_ —"

"You think my sweaters are dorky?" Barry asked innocently.

"I think he looks fine," Cisco finished.

There was a moment of silence.

"Guys," Harrison breathed, staring straight ahead. "I think I have an idea." The others looked at him questioningly. "You said when the Turtle uses his powers, he exudes waves of energy that drain the kinetic energy from his surroundings."

"Yes," Barry nodded.

"So if a person was to, say, _appear out of nowhere_ close enough to grab him, then they could easily apprehend him, yes?"

"But what if you appear right next to him and can't crack out again?" Jay asked.

"Apparate," Harrison automatically corrected.

"But if the Turtle can still move, then he is the epicenter of the waves," Cisco mused. "Theoretically, if you crack—"

"Apparate."

" _Apparate_ right on top of him, then you would be _inside_ the waves—out of their reach—and would be able to take him away."

"Right," Harrison nodded, pointing to him. "So while Caitlin, Barry, and Jay are inside the museum, I can stay in the van with you and Harry. When they've spotted the Turtle, I can pop in and take him here. Then, Barry can rush in and do his thing."

…

" _Cisco, are you and the Wells in position_?" came Caitlin's voice.

"I'm in the security feed," Cisco replied. He sat in the back of the van with a laptop propped up in his lap, illuminating his face. Up front were the two Wells—Harry was in the driver's seat and Harrison wore his Midnight Phantom suit. "I've got the facial recognition software running, so we'll be able to spot Turtle before he makes his move."

"Turtle," Harry whispered in annoyance. He stuck his head between the seats to look at Cisco. "Why do you insist on giving them ridiculous nicknames?"

"Me?" Cisco retorted from behind them. "Who's the genius who came up with _'Zoom'_?"

"Yeah, well," Harry whispered, looking back in front of him. "I'll tell you. About two years ago—this was on Earth Two, now—the CCPD got a 911 call about a hostage situation. But when the SWAT team got there, there were no hostages. It was a trap." Harrison glanced at Cisco, who was staring out a window. "Zoom set a trap in order to show the police that they could not stop him, and he killed fourteen officer—men and women. Slaughtered them, left one alive to tell what happened. That officer described blue lightning _zooming_ about, as his comrades were murdered. That's how he got the nickname Zoom."

Harrison looked out his window. Then, he turned back to the other two men in the car and commented, "You know, in retrospect, I'm glad that the only bad speedster we had in this city before was fixated on one of us—it seems that one can do so much more damage when they're determined to take over the city than when they're trying to use one person."

"That is why Zoom is an enemy unlike anything any of you have seen before," his doppelganger replied. "He's dangerous, and he's not afraid to take as many lives as he needs to reach his goal—to be the fastest man alive. Someone people can fear."

Cisco, who had been silent, finally piped up from the back.

"Harry," he said. "If you ever need me to vibe…so you can see if your daughter is still alive—"

"She's alive," the older man interrupted forcefully, staring at the windshield with a hardened gaze.

"All right," Cisco whispered in return.

They sat in silence after that. Harry stared at the windshield with a vacant gaze. Harrison watched people walking around in the streets. Cisco sat in the back, his laptop in his lap, looking down at the screen. Little figures of people reflected in his eyes, flickering through his cornea. Then, he sat up straight and said, "We've got eyes on Turtle!"

He put the laptop up on the dashboard where all three could watch. On the screen was a man in a hoodie, walking out of a little alcove towards the painting unnoticed. As he began to lift up to grab the painting, Harrison apparated to the man's side, quickly casting an Incarcerous charm. Ropes shot around the man before he could even react. Then, a second later, Barry was standing next to him.

"Let's go," the speedster muttered.

Harrison, who was already inches away from the man, quickly grabbed his hood and disapparated. Once in STAR Labs, he threw the man in a cell in the pipeline.

"All right!" Barry exclaimed, giving him a high five.

Harrison grinned. As the bulkhead shut behind them, he pulled his hood off. Barry did the same.

"Cortex?" Harrison asked.

"Yeah," the man nodded.

They both went to the cortex and pulled out a deck of cards.

"What are we playing?"

"How about Spades?"

"All right." Barry super-speed-shuffled the deck and placed it face down between them. "What's your bet?"

…

"So we drive back from the other end of town and you two are sitting here playing cards?" Caitlin asked, looking offended.

"We had to pass the time somehow," Barry laughed.

"Turtle is in the pipeline, by the way," Harrison muttered.

"Can I play next round?" Cisco asked.

Caitlin huffed and walked off. Barry, Harrison, and Cisco all laughed.

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	25. Chapter 25

**I don't own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Five:**

" _Whatcha got for me, Cisco?_ "

Harrison was sitting in the cortex, taking a break from saving people. He was tired—he felt as though he couldn't save another person. Not that day. Not the way he was feeling. The young man missed home so much, his heart ached. Now that Christmas had passed, it felt as though the clock was ticking down. It had been well over a year since he had been sent to Barry's time. A month after Christmas, and now it was nearly a year and a half.

He missed Tess.

Harrison longed to just see her face. Sure, there were pictures—memories—but it wasn't the same as seeing her in person. He longed just to hear the ringing sound of her laugh—one of her quick jokes. A year later, and it felt as though he had entirely forgotten the sound of her voice. Harrison sighed and put his head in his hands.

"—You've been playing Good Samaritan all morning," Cisco was groaning to Barry, sitting in the main desk across the room. "Take a break—Harrison's taking one."

"Leave me out of this," Harrison muttered from the other side of the room.

"Are you sure you don't want to get to CCPD?" Cisco asked.

" _No, I can catch up later_."

"—'Cause we cannot afford to waste any more time," Harry muttered from beside Cisco.

"Oh, the ever consistent raincloud of joy," Harrison muttered under his breath.

At the same time, Cisco asked, "What, 'cause we've been sipping Mai Thais since you got here?"

"I don't know what you've been sipping, but Barry needs to get better, stronger, faster. We need to train to prepare for Zoom."

"Oh, I see," the young man said once he finished, picking up his mug from the desk. "You haven't had your morning coffee yet."

"I had my coffee this morning," the older man dissented. As Cisco raised the cup to his lips, he ordered, "Don't slurp."

With a _slurp_ , Cisco took a sip out of his cup.

"Don't—"

The young man slurped again, cutting him off.

" _Don't…"_ he drew the word out, long and annoyed. Just to spite him, Cisco did the same—taking a long and annoying sip. His last slurp was cut off by a beeping on the computer. Instantly, he was sitting up and attentive, shouting directions at Barry through the microphone.

Over at his desk, Harrison shook his head, not in the mood to deal with either men in the room with him.

Then, Cisco called, "How's that for training? Now take a break!"

He turned to Harry and said, "Look, we're gonna catch Zoom. All we gotta do is figure out how to steal Zoom's speed, and then we'll get your daughter back."

"That might take longer than we thought." Harrison finally looked up to see Jay in the doorway.

"Why is that?" Harry asked.

"The Turtle's dead."

Cisco turned and caught eye-contact with Harrison, whose eyebrow's lowered in confused concern. The former leaned forward, turning on the microphone and saying, "Barry, we need you back here, STAT."

…

Harrison stood with Cisco, Harry, and Jay as Caitlin and Barry crouched over the dead body in the cell as Cisco muttered, "He'd better not be pulling a Juliet," Caitlin looked up from her iPad and gave him a pained look. "Yeah," Cisco said, responding to her gaze, "I watch plays too."

"He's dead, Cisco," she emphasized.

"How'd this happen?" Harry asked quietly, one fist resting on the wall.

"Preliminary brain scan shows an acute brain aneurysm," the doctor told them, glancing down at her iPad.

"The night we captured him," Jay observed. "How's that for timing?"

"What does that mean?" Harry asked. "You think I did this, Garrick?" The man in question raised his eyebrows. "This man is the key to us stopping Zoom—the key to me saving my daughter. Why would I want that?"

"I never understood why you do anything, Harrison," he replied.

"Uh, no," Harrison interrupted, leaning forward. " _I'm_ Harrison. He's Harry."

"You realize my name is Harrison as well?" Harry retorted. "Why do _you_ earn that name and not me?"

"I got here first."

"Okay, okay!" Cisco interrupted, shoving between them. Both tall men looked down at him. "You're both a little antsy. Why don't we all just sit down, and talk this through?"

Harrison shoved his friend out of his way, into his own doppelganger. Jay warily stepped to the side and the young man walked briskly past him and out of the room.

…

Harrison sat on his bed, running his wand through his fingers. Just beyond him sat a picture of Tess that he had printed out months ago and framed. He glanced up at it, and then slammed it down where he couldn't see her smiling face.

"Hey, you okay man?"

The young man glanced up at Cisco, who was hovering awkwardly in the doorway to his bedroom. Harrison set his wand down on the side table.

"Yeah," he whispered. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You know that's the exact thing Harry said, right?" Harrison shook his head unhappily. "Anyway, you've been acting…"

"Mopey?" Harrison suggested, receiving a nod. The young man laughed mirthlessly. "I suppose it would seem that way, wouldn't it?" He paused. "No, I'm just…missing home."

"I suppose that the fact that you no longer have to fear for your life when you return makes it harder," Cisco muttered.

"Yeah," the young man agreed. "And…one week will mark the day I've been here a year and a half. Almost two _whole_ years." He shook his head with a sigh. "I just want to go home."

It was a plea so small and quiet that somehow made him seem a hundred years older and sadder. Cisco's face contorted with sympathy. Then, he said quietly, "I, uh, I may have vibed you earlier when you shoved me."

Harrison's head shot up.

"What?" he asked. "What did you see?"

"I'm—I'm not quite sure," Cisco replied. "It was kind of hazy…but I could make out a man. I…"

"What?" Harrison asked as he trailed off. "Who was he?"

"Well he didn't have a nose," Cisco said slowly. "Just two slits like a snake. And his eyes were red…" he trailed off. A mental image of a man with the same description popped up in his mind. "You know, the _Harry Potter_ movies weren't quite accurate with their casting, so he looked a little different, but I think it was Voldemort."

" _Harry Potter_?" Harrison parroted, his voice very quiet. Then, he seemed to snap back to the present. "Iris mentioned something about a book series when I first met her."

"Oh, yeah, I own all of them," Cisco replied. "I can lend them to you."

Harrison nodded very slowly. Then, he looked up at his friend. "Hey, you don't think you could vibe me, do you?"

Cisco shook his head and replied, "I don't know…I still don't have a whole lot of control over it." They both looked down. Then, Cisco's eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. "But maybe we can get Harry to help us."

…

"So what do you think?"

Harry looked up at the both of them with a very reluctant look in his eyes.

"We could find out where Zoom is," Cisco added. "Get the jump on him."

"Good idea," Harry replied. "You do that."

"We need your help," Harrison interrupted.

"What you need, Ramon, is to figure out what triggers your powers."

"Exactly," Cisco agreed, "and I _don't know_ what triggers them. It's completely inconsistent. Sometimes it's when I touch something that belongs to a breacher, sometimes it just happens."

"There's always a cause," Harry muttered. "Cause—Effect—It doesn't take Einstein to figure that out."

"Okay, so what is the _cause_?" Cisco asked. His tone reflected how fed up he was beginning to feel with the man. Harrison could help but feel a twinge of annoyance as well. "You saw when I tried to vibe Dr. Light—when I tried to vibe _you_ —it took a long time."

"Yes," he muttered, blinking. He stood up and looked at the two young men standing before him. "Yes, it did. Meet me in the Time Vault."

And he turned and walked away. Cisco and Harrison shared a partly confused, partly

worried look. "For what?" Cisco asked. As he disappeared through the doorway, the older man said nothing, only waving a finger at them. Cisco walked out of his work room.

"What do you think he's up to?" Harrison asked, following him. His earlier sulking feeling was completely forgotten.

Cisco shrugged in reply. They walked down the hallway and saw that the Time Vault was open. Cisco peeked a head inside and asked, "Hello?" It was dark, lit only by the light in the hallway. Harrison followed his friend inside. "Harry?" At no response, Cisco muttered, "Great, now he's going to make us wait in this freaky braille room."

There was a sound behind them and a quiet voice, whispering, "Hi, Cisco."

Harrison jumped out of his skin and clutched Cisco's arm, who screamed. They both turned to see a man standing in the dark room with a yellow suit on.

"Stop! Don't _do_ that!" Cisco shouted as he realized it was Harry. He let out a growl of annoyance, still clutching his heart.

"I figured out your trigger," Harry whispered, walking forward. "The rush of adrenaline. Dopamine floods the brain, and the quickest way to achieve that result…" Cisco swallowed as he trailed off. Harrison stepped back warily as Harry grabbed Cisco's shoulders and exclaimed, "Fear!"

Cisco's eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open limply as he froze. His mouth slowly drifted shut and he blinked a few times. Harrison and Harry both looked at him with concern, asking, "What did you see?"

"Reverse Flash," Cisco breathed. "He's here."

…

"Great, and we thought we had e _nough_ going on," Harrison muttered bitterly.

The Reverse Flash was indeed back, and he had kidnapped Tina McGee.

"So, I'm confused," Joe said from beside Barry. "How is the Reverse Flash here? I though he disappeared—is he back?"

"He didn't know we've met each other before," Barry said, shaking his head. "Not in this time, anyway."

Harrison nodded in understanding. Then, he turned to Joe and said, "He's a past Thawne from the future."

Joe's eyebrows lowered and his tilted his head.

"Not helping," he finally said.

"Here, let me show you," Harrison said, walking over to the clear board. He drew three circles in a line, explaining that the one on the far left was their time, the one in the center was Thawne's time, and the one on the right was the moment Thawne left his own time and went back to Barry's. He drew a line from that bubble to the one on the left. "The Thawne that's here now is the one from this time," he pointed to the center bubble.

"He has not yet travelled back in time to kill Barry's mother. He's here now in this timeline for the first time—" Harrison added.

"He does not know your name," his doppelganger continued.

"—or any of us," the younger Wells finally finished.

"If Thawne dies before he can travel back again," Joe mused, "would that save Barry's mother?"

"No," Harry replied. "That's not how it works."

"You see," Harrison said, "The death of Nora Allen is what people call a fixed point in time. She is dead in this timeline—nothing can fix that."

"All right, well, I'm gonna end this," Barry interrupted. "Him—in this time—once and for all."

"Let's find Dr. McGee," Joe argued. "Then we'll deal with Thawne. Okay?"

In the doorway, Eddie shook his head, muttering, "I can't believe a descendant of mine ever went so nuts."

Joe walked over to him and as the two headed back to the elevator, Joe asked, "Can you go find Iris? Keep her safe?"

"Already on it," his partner replied.

The elevator door shut, concealing them inside.

Harry set the dry-erase marker down and muttered, "Ramon," gesturing for the young man to follow him. Curious, Harrison came as well.

…

"So what did you do to my goggles?" Cisco asked as he and Harrison looked down at the goggles they had used to cause Cisco to lucid dream the year before.

"I added a wavelength trigger to stimulate the fear receptors in your brain," the older man replied. He picked them up. "And then, I took what you already had to induce slow-wave sleep and upgraded it to get you to stage four sleep—it will give us more control."

"Okay," Cisco muttered slowly.

"Now I'll be able to dictate how long you vibe for," Harry said, holding them out to the young man. "Put 'em on."

Cisco looked at him warily, asking after a pause, "What am I gonna see?"

"I don't know," Harry replied, raising an eyebrow. "I've never done this before. You'll have to tell me so I can steer you where you need to be."

Cisco took the goggles and looked at them, turning them over in his hands.

"Come on, Cisco," Harrison prompted. "Go ahead and put them on."

"Okay," he mumbled.

"Atta boy," Harry said as the young man sat on a stool and shook his head, before sliding the goggles onto his face.

They lit up with a green light, and Cisco fell silent. Then, he laughed, "Oh, yeah, man. I'm in full vibe-mode right now."

"What do you see?" Harry asked.

"It's hard to explain," Cisco replied. "It's different events in time."

"Concentrate on the Reverse Flash."

"Okay," Cisco muttered, falling silent once more. "I see him."

"Move toward him," the older man instructed.

"Okay, now what?"

"Try to picture him with Christina McGee."

He was silent even longer this time. He must have been watching something. Then, he cried out, "No!" Both Wells' smiles fell and Harrison's eyebrows lowered in concern. Harry stepped back as Cisco stood, throwing off the goggles and panting.

"Well, what is it?" Harry asked.

"She's dead," Cisco breathed.

…

"Dr. McGee is dead?" Caitlin asked with a concerned look on her face.

Cisco rubbed his own face and sighed, "I don't know—The Wells and I were trying to hone my powers to find Zoom, and then we ended up using them to find the Reverse Flash. And that's when—I saw him kill her. And then he left."

"He left?" Barry asked. "What do you mean, he left?"

"I mean, he—McGee built him some sort of time machine, he ran into it, and got flung back into his own time."

The speedster sighed unhappily, looking away.

"Well, you'd need superluminal energy to send someone through time," Harry mused.

"You mean like tach—?" the Flash asked.

"Tachyons," Harry finished.

"We can track their location once they've been activated," Barry told him. Harrison wandered over to the computer and ran the scan. "Anything?"

"Nothing."

Cisco sighed and put a hand on his head.

"Cisco, you're sure that's what you saw?" the speedster asked.

"Positive."

"What else did you see?" Harry asked, turning back to Cisco.

"There was all sorts of weird tech everywhere," the long-haired young man responded. "A clock…"

As he reached into his memory, to name something else, Harry interrupted, "What time did the clock say?"

"'9:52', I think," he muttered slowly. " _How_ is that relevant?"

"It's six o'clock now," Harrison realized.

Cisco stood quickly, pushing the chair away from him, and asked, "Are you telling me I can see the future?"

"That's exactly what _I'm_ saying," Harry responded.

"Those goggles are getting named," Cisco breathed. "Immediately."

"But that means Dr. McGee is alive," Caitlin smiled.

"That's right," Harry said.

"Okay, so we have three hours, fifty-two minutes to find her and the Reverse Flash," Barry told them.

…

"Tachyons!" Cisco exclaimed. "87th, and Avenue J!"

As Barry sped off, Harrison said into the microphone, "All right, I'll grab Dr. McGee. You make sure Thawne doesn't do any more damage."

Harrison then apparated there and to the outside of STAR Labs within a fraction of a minute with Tina McGee in tow. He turned to her and said, "You need to get somewhere safe."

"What's going on?" she asked. "Who are you?"

Harrison hesitated, and then pulled off his mask, saying, "Hello, Tina." Her mouth fell open in shock. He paused and then said with a laugh, "Where I come from, you're around twenty years younger."

"You're dead!" she exclaimed.

"Well, the Harrison Wells in this world….is," Harrison replied. "I'm…not him."

"I don't understand," she said quickly.

Harrison shook his head.

"All you need to know is that there is a man here from a different time who wants to return home—"

"The man in yellow."

"Yes, and he will stop at nothing to return home. That means going after, using, and even killing people who can help him. _You need to get to a safe place._ "

She nodded and ran off. Once she was gone, Harrison raised a hand to his com and asked, "Barry, what's happening?"

" _I'm back,_ " the Flash replied. " _Thawne is taken care of._ "

…

"When you said 'taken care of,' I thought you meant sent back to his own time!" Harrison exclaimed, looking at the video feed of Thawne locked in the pipeline. "Why is he here?"

"He's not going to hurt another person again," Barry muttered in response.

Cisco rubbed his nose beside Harrison, who shouted, "You don't know what you're messing with! It never turns out well when you screw with time!"

"What could happen?" Barry yelled in return.

Harrison started forward and Barry turned and stalked out of the cortex. The former turned away with a sigh, his eyebrows contorted in annoyance. On the other side of him, Eddie looked at the security feed of Eobard looking up at the camera.

"I've got to get back to work," the cop muttered.

"Yeah," Joe agreed. "Come on."

And the two of them left.

Just a few minutes later, Thawne stood and began talking to someone—Barry had gone down to the pipeline.

"Don't worry," Cisco whispered. "We'll get you home soon."

Harrison shook his head. "No—it's just—" he sighed. "Sometimes he's so _stubborn_."

Cisco nodded, rubbing his nose again. Harrison glanced over, and then did a double-take as he realized there was blood on the young man's hand.

"You okay?" he asked, reaching out a hand to support his friend as the young man swayed unsteadily.

"Yeah," Cisco said. Then, he seemed to choke. "Ye—"

He cut off and fell to the floor. There, he shook uncontrollably, flailing his arms. His nose was now pouring blood. Caitlin rushed forward and Harry turned and watched with concern.

"What happened?" Caitlin asked, looking up at Harrison.

"I-I don't know!" Harrison exclaimed. "He just—fell over!"

"Help me get him to the med-bay," Caitlin said quickly.

As Harry grabbed his feet and the two of them carried him to a bed, Harrison ran his hands through his hair nervously. Caitlin ran over to the microphone and shouted, "Barry we need you into the cortex now!"

Then, she ran back and check a computer. As Harry and Harrison stepped forward, holding Cisco gently, Barry sped up and asked, "What's happening?"

"He's experiencing an uncontrollable amount of electrical energy in his brain, putting him in a prolonged state of clonic seizing." she responded.

"What?" Barry breathed, his eyes widening. "Can you stop it?"

"I don't know." As he continued to jerk, Caitlin turned back to her computer, ordering, "Hold him down!"

"We're trying!" Harrison shouted.

"Sedate him, Snow!" Harry commanded. "Now!"

"Benzodiazepine," Caitlin muttered, pulling out a needle. "This should do it."

She injected the needle into his arm and Cisco's seizure's slowed to a stop. Harrison let out a sigh of relief with the others. Then, they all jumped back in surprise as Cisco's body phased out, leaving him unstable—he resembled a ghost that pulsed and lay on the bed.

"What was that?" Barry asked.

"What's going on, where the hell am I?" Cisco shouted.

"Cisco!" Barry exclaimed.

"It's the timeline," Harry told them, walking forward.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"When you—when you captured Reverse Flash, we ruptured the timeline!" Harry explained in a disjointed manner. "That's what this—All the blood, and the seizures—a-and all! Cisco is being affect to—to—by the changes to the timeline—the changes to the past, and the changes to the present! This is what is this is. We need to do something and we need to do it fast."

"All right—all right—what do we do?" Harrison asked.

"We need to restore the timeline," the older man replied. " _Barry_ , you need to get Reverse Flash and send him to the future as quickly as possible!"

" _What_?" the Flash spluttered. Then his voice raised to a shout. "Are you—I _just_ caught him!"

"Barry—"

"—and you want me to just let him go?"

"Him being here is _killing_ Cisco!" Harry bellowed in return.

Barry raised his hands up to his head and his face filled with anguish.

"Barry, if this is the only way, you have to do this," Caitlin pleaded.

"I can't!" he breathed. "A-all right, look, even if I wanted to I can't. I destroyed the tachyon in the speed machine. There's no way it'll reach the speed necessary to send him back home."

Harrison raised a hand up to his mouth and Harry rubbed his head, causing his dark hair to stand on end. Then, Harrison whispered, "You've time travelled before."

"What?" Barry asked.

Much louder, the young man exclaimed, "You've—time traveled— _before_! You're—you're speed, coupled with Thawne's, will be more than enough—"

"To send him through the time continuum," Harry finished. "You can do it."

Barry looked around at them all.

"All right," he nodded. "All right, let's do it."

They went down to the pipeline. Barry and Harrison were in their respective suits and Harry had his enormous gun in hand. As Barry opened the door to Eobard's cell, the man smiled.

"The paradox," he said. "You're all messing with something you don't understand."

"Can you do us a favor," Harry asked, "and shut up?"

Thawne laughed.

"And how exactly are _you_ going to send me home?" he questioned skeptically.

"Don't worry about it," Harrison retorted.

"You fixed Dr. McGee's tachyon machine?"

"He _said_ 'don't worry about it'," Harry repeated. "We came up with a different method."

"Is that so?" the man asked, raising his chin and looking at the two men with a critical eye.

"Uh huh," Harrison replied.

"Who are you?" he asked, finally stepping out of his cell.

Harry, his gun trained on the man, and Harrison with his hands raised ready in defense, shared a look.

"No one of consequence," the older one replied.

A smile slowly spread across Thawne's face as he said, "Oh, I highly doubt that."

…

As the two speedster ran inside the pipeline, Harry muttered, "This is his origin story. This is where he learns about all of them—about us—the Harrison Wells from this Earth."

"And there's nothing we can do about it," Harrison sighed, pulling his hood off. His short black hair stood wildly on end.

"Yes," his doppelganger affirmed.

"The Harrison Wells on this Earth is doomed to die."

The both of them fell silent—a strange understanding finally coming between them. All though they were two very different people, there was a strange link between them—their very identity, the thing that made them unique from everyone else in the world, is what connected them in their silent agreement.

A vow to make sure that no one else died needlessly.

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	26. Chapter 26

**I don't own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Six:**

"I think that maybe you were right."

Barry was talking to Cisco. That day, they had discovered a new metahuman, Tarpit. He turned into molten tar and suffocated people who had done him wrong. Harrison looked up at the speedster as he talked.

"—I felt slower tonight." Beside Harrison, his doppelganger stopped what he was doing and looked up, staring off into the med-bay. "Not by much, but enough. Do you think there's something wrong with the suit, maybe?"

"It's unlikely," Harry interrupted, before turning back to his work.

"The readings from the suit are normal," Cisco replied. "You know I take care of that thing."

"Yeah," the Flash nodded. "Am I sick?"

"I don't know," Cisco hesitated. "Do you feel any different?"

"Not really. I mean, I know that I'm slower in the moment, but I can't tell by how much."

"Two percent," Caitlin said, walking up to them. "Tests on your blood show the Speed Force in your system at one hundred percent for the last sixty days until today. It dropped to ninety-eight."

Harrison glanced over at his doppelganger, who was looking down now. He looked conflicted about something. Then, as Barry asked, "Dr. Wells?" He responded and slowly got out of his chair. Harrison rose as well, looking at him expectantly. Barry continued, "You know more about the Speed Force than anyone else. What do you think could have happened?"

"It could be any number of things."

"Yeah, all right," Barry sighed, walking away with resignation. "It's just—look—Iris could have died tonight. I was too slow—if Harrison hadn't been there, she would've gotten hit by that glass. I wasn't fast enough to protect people from a metahuman tonight. When Zoom attacks, I need all of my speed and _then_ some. I can't lose anyone else."

"You won't," Harry finally interrupted, standing once more. "I did it."

"What?" Barry asked.

He walked over to the Flash's suit and pulled the insignia off of the chest, revealing something hidden underneath it.

"What is that?" Cisco asked slowly. Harry tossed it to him and he looked at it with his eyebrows lowered.

As Joe walked into the room, Harry walked toward Barry and said, "I stole your speed. I gave it to Zoom."

"No, no, no, this isn't—" Barry breathed. "What are—you're working with Zoom?"

"No, not at first."

Joe's face hardened.

"We trusted you," Barry exclaimed. " _I_ trusted you!"

Joe slipped past his adopted son, pulling back his arm and swinging a fist into the man's face. Harry fell to the ground, flat on his face. As Joe pulled his back up again, Caitlin shouted, "Joe stop!"

Holding him by his arm and the back of his coat, Joe drug the stumbling Wells out of the room, throwing him in the pipeline. Harry rolled onto the floor, not even attempted to get up. Walking away, Caitlin asked, "Why'd you put him in there?"

"'Cause I would have killed him if I didn't," the cop replied. "Now, let's go get that tar freak."

Barry hesitated and then began to follow them, glancing back at Harrison, who was standing in front of Harry's cell. His doppelganger still lie on the floor. He looked distraught.

"Come on," Barry said quietly.

Slowly, Harrison turned from his older self and closed the bulk head.

…

"You caught Tarpit?" Harry asked.

"It was easy with those nitrous grenades," his doppelganger replied.

Barry gave him a pained look.

"Why did you do it?" the speedster asked.

"My daughter," he replied simply.

"Yeah, you'll save her at any cost," Barry noted. "But at the cost of someone else? Joe's daughter?"

"I told you I would betray you. I told you I would have to choose."

"That's binary thinking—it's not either or," Harrison piped up.

"Life _is_ either or," Harry retorted. "Yes, no. Black, white. Love—hate. From the dawn of time until now."

A voice entered Harrison's and he replied, looking down at the ground, "The world isn't split into good people and bad people… 'we've all got light and dark inside. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are'."

Harry stopped and stared at him. It was as though the words connected to him in a way he didn't even understand. Then, he sighed and replied, "You're right. I had a choice. And I chose my darker side—the side that rises up inside me to protect those I love."

"Well you chose wrong," Joe piped up from behind Harrison and Barry.

"Really, detective? Because I just sacrificed my daughter. I just sentenced my daughter to death to save your son."

"You want a pat on the back?" Joe asked sarcastically.

"I want you to send me home," he retorted. "Send me back to Earth Two. Close all the breaches. Zoom will never be able to cross over ever again, and that will be the end of it."

"What about your daughter?" Barry asked.

"That's my fight," the older man replied.

Barry and Harrison shared a long look. Harrison was unsure of what the speedster was thinking, but he knew he wanted to help his doppelganger—help him get his daughter back. Harrison would do anything to get Tess back. He had tried to do it alone and had quickly learned it was better to let Team Flash help.

…

Harry stepped out of his cell slowly as Barry opened it for him. Cisco, Caitlin, and Harrison watched him.

"I guess this is goodbye," he whispered.

"No," Barry shook his head. "It's not. I told you we're a team, now you're a part of it. I told you we would help you get Jesse. Looks like we're going to Earth Two."

…

"Hey, look, I know you want to help Harry," Barry said quietly, pulling Harrison off to the side, "but you're needed here. We can't just leave this Earth unprotected."

"Then let me go instead of you," Harrison argued. "Zoom's looking for you—if I go, then he won't have another chance to trap you."

"But that's _why_ I need to go," Barry shook his head. "I need to face my fears. I can't just hide here while others go in and defeat him. Look, please."

Harrison's hard gaze softened and he finally whispered, "Fine."

"Thank you," Barry nodded honestly.

Then, the two of them walked into the bunker where the others already were.

"Okay remember," Jay told them. "You're about to go through the Looking Glass. You're going to see things that look and feel familiar, but they're not. Up is down, black is white, and do _not_ get sucked in emotionally."

"Got it," Barry nodded.

"Good luck," Caitlin smiled, kissing him on the cheek.

"All right, and if we're not back in forty-eight hours, that means that Zoom has us. If that happens, you have to close the breach."

"We're not gonna do that," Caitlin pleaded.

Barry looked over at Joe and gave him a nod. The cop said, "You get yourself back here in one piece all right? Don't make me come get you."

"No," Barry smiled, giving him a hug.

"Take care, Barry," Eddie smiled, patting a hand on his future brother-in-law's shoulder.

While they were talking, Cisco turned to Harrison and Caitlin, handing the former a piece of paper and saying, "I wrote this for my parents and Dante. If I don't come back, make sure it gets to them."

"Cisco, you're gonna come back," Caitlin said.

"Don't worry," Harrison nodded, taking the envelope from him.

"Thank you," he muttered, looking down. "And you've got my bookcase? I left it in the cortex for you." Harrison nodded. "Good."

Then he, Harry, and Barry stepped towards the wormhole. The older Dr. Wells let out a breath, and then said to Barry, "You don't have to do this."

"Yeah, I do," the speedster replied.

"Is anybody else feeling panic, right now?" Cisco asked. "I chickened out of bungee jumping when I was eighteen, but this is categorically a lot scarier."

"Once I turn the speedcannon on, the three of you will be able to pass through unharmed," Jay told them.

Cisco make smacking noises and said, "I got no spit."

" _Jaws_?" Harry asked.

"I'm not just quoting _Jaws_ ," the young man replied. "I mean my mouth is…really dry right now."

"And do not get distracted by anything you see along the way," Jay said.

"What will we see?" Cisco asked.

"Everything," the man replied.

"Do it, Jay," Barry told him.

Jay turned on the speedcannon and the wormhole came into view. Barry wrapped his arms around the men standing on either side of him and whispered, "Okay…Let's go."

He began running, and they disappeared with a flash as Jay turned the speedcannon off. As he did, the platform began shaking as the stabilizers sparked.

"Lookout, Caitlin!" Harrison shouted, throwing out his hand and using magic to whip her to the side. Jay ran forward and helped her up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied. They all turned and looked at the wreckage of the speedcannon—the rings had fallen to the side and a layer of smoke filled the room.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"With the rest of the breaches closed, the energy must have surged into this one and destabilized it," Jay replied.

"What does that mean?" Eddie asked.

"As long as it's unstable, Barry and Cisco will be trapped over there."

"You can fix it, right?" Harrison asked.

Jay looked at the wreckage, and then replied hopefully, "Yeah. I think so."

…

"How's it going?" Joe asked, walking into the bunker.

Jay, Harrison, and Caitlin were working on the broken stabilization unit for the wormhole.

"Uh, _slow_ ," Jay replied, "which is not a good adjective when it comes to a _speed_ cannon."

"Well," Joe sighed. "I'm gonna need to take Harrison from you."

The three young adults looked up at him. Harrison sat down his power tool.

"Okay?" he asked.

As Joe walked out of the room, he hastened to follow. The cop led him to the cortex where he pointed to a TV and he started a video. There was a woman in the screen who said, " _You need to see this_ ," before moving out of view.

Then, a man dressed in black with goggles on could be seen wandering around the screen, shouting, "I'm looking for the Midnight Phantom!"

"Earth Shaker?" Harrison asked as the man slammed a fist into the ground and the video ended. "He's back?"

Joe nodded.

"So I'm guessing you know this guy?"

"Yeah," the young man replied. "We caught him once and Paradox set him free."

"Paradox?"

"Oh, yeah, you weren't there were you?" Harrison asked. "Well, long story short, Paradox is this lunatic that has it in for me and was trying to send me home ages ago, only I didn't want to go then, and now I'm trapped here."

"So you could've gone home a long time ago?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't know what the man wanted so I didn't let him take me."

"Well," Joe said. "Can you handle this guy by yourself?"

He gestured to the screen.

"Oh yeah," he replied.

…

Harrison appeared on the rumbling street in full Phantom regalia with a _CRACK!_ The man looked up from his crouch and the ground stopped shaking as he looked up and smiled. The crazy man muttered, "I knew you'd come, Phantom."

"What, does your 'man in black' want me again?" Harrison asked.

"No," Earth Shaker grinned. "I haven't seen him in quite a while. _I_ was wanting you. You know, I like to see heroes fall."

"Well, you're going to be disappointed," the young man told him, spreading his arms wide.

The man made a move to cause an earthquake. As he did so, Harrison apparated by his side, grabbed him, and disappeared. Once in STAR Labs once more, he threw the men in a cell. "Now, I want to talk to you." He said. "About your old boss. You said you haven't seen him."

"Of course not, he isn't here," the man retorted.

"What do you mean he isn't here? How do you know this?"

Earth Shaker just shook his head with a smile. Angrily, Harrison closed the bulkhead and walked out of the pipeline. He went out to the elevator and went down a level to the bunker.

"All right, so how is it coming?" Harrison asked, returning to the bunker.

"All good," Caitlin smiled, clapping her hands together. "Now we just have…" she looked at Jay questioningly.

"Thirty-six hours till we need to close it again, if the others don't return," Jay replied.

Harrison nodded.

…

Nearly thirty-six hours later, Eddie, Iris, Joe, Harrison, Jay, and Caitlin stood in the bunker, watching the wormhole. Jay had the speed cannon turned on, ready for the others to come through. "Do you think they're okay?" Iris asked.

"I don't know," Harrison whispered, shaking his head. He looked over at Jay. "Get ready to close it."

"It won't hurt to leave it open a few more minutes than forty-eight hours, will it?" Eddie asked slowly.

"Not if Zoom's got them," Harrison started.

He was cut off from saying more by a flash of light. Cisco and a young girl appeared on the platform in front of the wormhole.

"Cisco!" Joe exclaimed.

"Get ready to close the breach, Zoom's on his way!" Cisco shouted.

Harrison grabbed the device Barry and the two Wells had come up with to close breaches. Cisco and the girl, most likely Jesse, hopped off the platform and ran over to stand with the others, who stood watching the breach expectantly.

"It shouldn't be taking this long," Cisco muttered.

Finally, there was another flash of light and Barry appeared with the other Wells. Wasting no time, Harrison activated the device and tossed it into the breach. As it phased in and out, beginning to collapse, they all breathed out a sigh of relief. Jay walked up onto the platform to watch it collapse.

"You did it!" Caitlin exclaimed after kissing Barry. "You made it!"

Jay turned and smiled at them. Joe hugged his son. Harrison looked at Jesse with a smile, saying, "Welcome to Earth One, Jesse."

Then, they all froze as a hand plunged through Jay's chest, crackling with lightning. Their smiles quickly fell, but they could do nothing as Zoom pulled Jay through the breach and the wormhole collapsed completely.

"He's… _dead_ ," Harrison breathed.

"Oh, he was such a good guy," Caitlin said softly, looking very sad.

Barry looked distraught.

"Open it up," he said.

"Allen—" Harry started.

"I need to go back," the speedster continued.

"I can't do that," Harry finished.

"Open it up!" Barry shouted.

"Allen!" the older man shouted in return. Then, he continued quietly, "The breaches are closed. _All_ the breaches are closed."

"Why can't we just open one of them?" Joe asked.

"The quark matter energy we used to seal the breaches prevents them from being opened ever again," Harry explained. "There's no going back to our world."

"Wait, you mean we're stuck here?" Jesse asked.

"As stuck here as I am," Harrison replied. "And _I've_ been stuck here for nearly two years now."

Jesse's breathing hitched.

"No, we can't just let Zoom get away with this," Barry argued. "He just murdered Jay right in front of us!"

"There's gotta be something we can do," Joe said.

"There's not," Harry replied. Barry sighed and looked down. "Not this time. It's over."

And Barry stormed out.

…

Harrison sat on his bed in his room, staring at the ceiling. In the room next to his, Jesse took the bed that Jay had once occupied and Harry had insisted on moving his own bed in there—after so long away from his daughter, he was determined not to let her out of his sight. While they were getting settled in, Harrison was sulking once more, looking down at his wand.

He snorted.

If he ever did return home, he would have to put away his wand for good. Was it worth it? Trade this world full of friends and powers for Tess? He didn't even hesitate to tell himself that yes, the trade was worth it. Especially when he remembered Tess's smile. Her happiness. Her optimism. Just as Harry needed Jesse, Harrison needed Tess.

He sighed. The young man supposed he would just have to wait—he would wait as long as he needed, just so long as he could return home again one day.

…

There was a flash of light in the old barn at the edge of Central City. A stable wormhole appeared. Through it came a man dressed in all black with glowing red eyes. He was spat out rather unceremoniously and landed as gracefully as a man could when he was a projectile flying from a cannon. Then, just as he was about to close the wormhole, it convulsed and four figures flew through, landing on the ground before him. Unlike the first man, who had had much practice travelling through wormholes, these people rolled and skidded through the hay, coming to a halt at his feet.

Then, they jumped to their feet, aiming wands at him, large guns strapped to their backs. With a growl, he created another portal and travelled through it before they could follow him. This time, he left them behind him.

One of the people that had come out in that barn looked around at the dark shapes surrounding them.

"Come on," she said. "We have work to do."

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer: I don't own Flash or Harry Potter**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Seven:**

" _Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much…"_

"You finally starting to read _Harry Potter_?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah," Harrison muttered. "Since there's nothing better for me to do at the moment. I didn't have time before—but now that the breaches are closed, everything's quiet."

"Well, hopefully not for long," Caitlin replied. "Barry's getting restless."

Harrison laughed, "Heh, yeah, I know the feeling."

"It's only been a week since Jay died," Cisco muttered. "It's not surprising things are quiet."

There was a crash, somewhere below them.

"What was that?" Caitlin asked.

She, Harrison, and Cisco looked at each other before Cisco rolled over to a computer in his chair and pulled up the security feed of different locations in STAR Labs. On one of the screens was what looked like a fight between four people and Harry—Jesse stood off to the side, looking worried.

"Hey you better get down there and—" There was a _CRACK_ as Harrison disappeared. "…see what's going on."

Harrison reappeared in the lobby, where the fight was going on.

"Hey!" he shouted, shoving between a woman and his doppelganger. "What's going on?"

Harry gestured with his enormous gun to the strangers, saying, "They broke in here. I was trying to apprehend them."

"Ap— _apprehend them_?" the young man questioned. "We don't even know who they are! Can't you ask questions before attacking?"

"I didn't know their motives," Harry shrugged.

Harrison shook his head and turned to inspect the four people. Two of them were female and two were male. There was a woman with thick, flyaway hair. The other young woman had bright red hair, which fell down her back. Another of the four had hair the exact same color, only he was taller and had broader shoulders. Finally, the fourth was a young man with honey colored hair and bright eyes. All of them were holding large guns aloft, and none of them seemed to be above the age of nineteen.

"Harry?" the girl with curly, bushy hair asked. Her eyes flickered between the two Wells and Jesse, who walked up to stand beside her father. "There are _two_ of you?"

"Who are you?" Harrison asked, stepping forward.

"You—you don't remember me," she observed, her eyebrows coming down.

"Should I?" he queried.

The girl looked back at the other three. They shared looks of confused concern.

"Why don't you come up to the cortex?" Harry piped up. "We'll sort everything out there." As the others nodded and the two men turned to lead them there, Harry turned to Harrison and whispered, "Call Barry."

Harrison nodded, pulling out his cell and calling Barry.

"We need you back here, pronto," he said. "We've got a situation."

He hung up as they entered the cortex. There, Cisco swung around in his spinning chair and slowly set down his slushy, exclaiming, "Whoa, whoa, who are they?"

Harrison shrugged.

"Found Harry trying to lock them in the pipeline," he replied.

"My name is Hermione Granger," the one with curly brown hair offered, stepping forward. "These are my friends—Colin Creevey, and Ginny and Ron Weasley."

"May we ask who you are?" the redhead girl—Ginny—asked with a retaliatory tone.

Before they could respond, there was a flash of yellow and a gush of wind and Barry skidded to a halt beside Harrison, looking around in a panic, trying to find the danger. Quickly, Harrison explained what was going on.

"My name is Barry Allen," the Flash told the newcomers, stepping forward and offering Hermione his hand. "These people are Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Jesse Wells, and…Harrison Wells." As he said the last name, he pointed to both Wells with two different fingers. Hermione's concerned look increased and the redhead—Ron?—looked thoroughly confused.

"Wells?" Ginny whispered slowly.

"Yes that is my given name," Harry retorted.

"I'm still confused," Ron muttered. "Why are there two of you? Am I seeing double?"

Team Flash all exchanged glances. "That's sort of a long story," Barry replied.

"Before we get into all that," Harry interrupted, waving his hand, "why don't you start by telling us what you're doing here?"

Hermione gave him a wry smile and replied, "That is also a long story."

Harrison spread his arms wide, raising his eyebrows and asking, "Well?"

"We were following a man," Ginny finally piped up.

"His name is Albert Mutare," Colin explained. "He had been living in my flat with me for a few weeks when one day he…left."

"Quite unexpectedly in the middle of the night," Ginny added. "That was when he called the auror office looking for…our friend, Harry...but he had been missing for a few days. I received the call and—"

"That's when she called on me and Ron to help investigate," Hermione finished for her. "We figured out that this man put off a certain kind of energy wherever he goes, so we traced him to an empty alleyway where we saw…a wormhole. We managed to get through right before it disappeared and ended up here."

"Of course, we've spent the past week figuring out where we are, what time period, and such. That's when we saw newspapers with you on it," Ron told them, and he pointed to the two Wells.

"Me?" Harrison asked, pointing a finger to his chest.

"Why would you come here to speak to Harrison Wells instead of the Flash?" Harry asked.

"The Flash?" Hermione asked innocently. She fixed her gaze on Harrison once more—he was closest to the age they had last seen him. "You really don't remember us?"

"I know you?" Harrison phrased in return. She nodded slowly.

"You still haven't explained why there's two of you," Colin commented.

"Well, we kinda opened up a black hole above the city a few months back," Cisco informed them, "and when we closed it, it left fifty-two breaches that led to another Earth—so this Harrison Wells—" he pointed to the younger—"is _our_ Wells, and this one"—he pointed to Harry—"is the Wells from the second Earth, which we have dubbed Earth Two."

"You said you came through a wormhole," Barry noted, looking at Hermione. "Do you mean you're from Earth Two?"

"Earth Two?" Hermione asked. "I—I mean, I wouldn't know."

Cisco turned to the others, muttering to them, "Team conference." They all walked over to the adjacent room to the cortex and muttered to each other in lowered voices. "What do you think about all this?"

"I—I don't know," Barry whispered. "Are we sure they can be trusted?"

Harrison glanced back to the group of people. The tall redhead—Ron—was prodding the keyboard on the desktop with a dubious expression. Meanwhile, the girls were also talking amongst themselves quietly. Harrison had no idea why, but something in his gut was telling him that he knew these people—that they were _good people_.

"I think we can trust them," both he and Harry said. They glanced at each other in surprise.

"But we don't even know where they're from," Caitlin muttered. "Or how they got here—who they followed—what they want…"

"You know what I think?" Cisco asked with a half-grin. "I think we should get some help from a professional."

…

"More inter-dimensional travel! This is just marvelous," Professor Martin Stein smiled, rubbing his hands together and walking around. Then, he grew a bit more serious. "By the way, Barry, I'm glad to hear you are in functioning health—I heard about what happened with Zoom, you see…"

"So what do you think, Professor?" Caitlin asked him.

"Well I don't quite know enough to make a sound conjecture," he muttered. He strolled over to where Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Colin were standing in the cortex, still looking around with curiosity. "In this world you come from, what time period is it?"

"We left in the year 2000," Hermione replied slowly.

"2000," Joe murmured with a bewildered expression. "The same year—"

"My mom died, yeah," Barry whispered.

"So that predates metahumans," Cisco muttered to the two Wells.

Harrison's eyes looked up and down the four strange people standing before him. Something about them was…different. He could tell. A tag still hung from the jacket that Ron wore—a jacket that, upon closer inspection, clashed horribly with the young man's pants. The four of them—the redheads especially—stared around at all of the technology as though it was completely foreign to them. That could be put off by the fact that they were from the year 2000, but there _were_ computers and televisions then, just not as advanced. Being from the year 2000 himself, he had been a bit surprised by the sleek technology in STAR Labs, but not entirely dumbfounded. Harrison's eyes caught on a long shape along Hermione's belt-line. The same form, long and thin, could be seen in Ginny's sleeve. As he stared at it, his hand reached to his own long, thin object that was concealed in a pocket on the inside of his jacket.

They had wands?

He recalled that, in his days at Ilvermorny, the children around him hadn't the faintest idea what a telephone or an automobile was. It was like they lived perpetually in the dark ages. Could it be that these people were wizards? That they were from _his_ Earth? Finally deciding to take his chances, he asked, "What is that?"

Harrison pointed to the long thin object concealed under Hermione's shirt.

"Oh, it's uh…" she trailed off.

The redhead clutched her own arm and Ron stepped forward, saying, "It's nothing."

Harrison reached into his jacket and drew out his wand from within. Harry stared at it in confusion and the strangers went slack-jawed. Then, Hermione reached to her belt and pulled out her own, slender wand.

"Am I seeing things?" Cisco asked from behind them.

Harrison cocked his head at Hermione and raised his eyebrow as if to challenge her to respond.

"No," the girl replied firmly. "My name is Hermione Granger, and I am a witch."

…

"There's no magic here?" Ginny asked curiously.

Harrison shook his head and responded, "I looked everywhere, but there was no sign of magic."

"So you guess you're from the same Earth as us," Hermione mused, "and you know you're a wizard…but you don't remember us?"

Harrison shook his head, rubbing his hands through his hair, muttering, "I don't know."

"How do you not know?" Ginny demanded.

"I mean, there are moments where I feel as if I've forgotten something…as if I know more than I think I do…but when I try to remember _why_ , I can't."

"Someone's Obliviated you," Hermione finally surmised, her eyes softening.

"What about me?" Harry asked finally. "I don't know what any of you are talking about…and I _am_ you."

"There's no magic in your world," Harrison told him. "You can't be a wizard because there's no magic _there_ either…." He trailed off. "That's why those Harry Potter books exist about magic. If there _is_ no magic in your world—worlds—then the possibility of it remains and someone must have thought of it and written it down!"

"I'm not following," Joe muttered.

"When the idea of a multiverse was proposed," Harrison explained, "people began to theorize that if there are infinite universes with infinite alterations, then anything is quite literally possible. If you can think of it, it probably exists somewhere. So if you've ever wondered if there is an Earth with no magic—" he pointed to Hermione—"then it exists. And if you've ever wondered if there's a Joe West out there that isn't a cop"—he pointed to Joe this time—"then there is. There is no such thing as fantasy. _Reality_ is _infinite_."

"But if that's true," Colin muttered slowly, "and _The Flash_ TV show exists on my Earth…does that mean that the Flash doesn't?"

"I would assume so," Professor Stein replied. "Perhaps we are in a whole separate multiverse from you. Our multiverse is without magic and yours _has_ magic. Your world obviously is a reality of the book series, _Harry Potter,_ whereas our multiverse is a reality of your television show, _The Flash_."

"And it's characters?" Colin asked. "The characters of _Harry Potter_ do not exist in your world as much as the characters of _The Flash_ don't exist in ours?"

Harrison looked at the others.

"But… _I'm_ a character from the Flash—Harrison Wells."

"Does that mean that Harrison Wells shouldn't exist on our Earth?" Hermione asked.

"But he has magic," Ginny said slowly.

There was a moment of silent contemplation. The silence seemed to weigh heavy on Harrison's mind.

"But Harry Potter _does_ exist on our Earth," Hermione finally said.

"What are you saying?" Harrison asked in concern.

"Let me try something," she said, her eyes suddenly lighting up.

" _Retinentia_ ," she whispered, pointing her wand to her temple. A thick silvery substance flowed from the tip of her wand she caught it in her hand as it fell off the wand, and then she walked forward and pressed it onto his forehead with a shout of, " _Novanimus_!"

And without warning, Harrison crumpled to the floor, losing all consciousness.

…

"What is your name?"

His eyes blinked open slowly and he tried to regain his bearings.

"Harry Potter," he replied. There was an audible gasp. He looked all about him. He was on a bed in a room full of machines…med-bay—adjoining the cortex, he remembered. How had he gotten there? STAR Labs… "No," he said slowly, trying to filter through his thoughts. "No…My name is Harrison Wells."

"You remember!" came a happy shriek.

"Hermione!" he smiled. "What's going on?"

"What do you remember?" she asked.

"I was getting ice cream with Ginny." He blinked a few times, trying to clear his head. "And then someone grabbed me behind. They pushed me through…"—Another image entered his mind of a swirling air pocket in the pipeline—"a wormhole…and then I was four years old, standing on a beach."

He looked up as a short young man with long dark hair entered the med-bay.

"How you doing, man?" he asked, giving Hermione a wary look.

"Cisco!" Harrison exclaimed. "I'm all right…My mind is just a bit jumbled, though."

"I would expect," Hermione nodded. "If you were de-aged and grew up as Harrison Wells, you essentially just had a whole other lifetime shoved into your head."

"That's what it feels like," he laughed, rubbing the back of his head. He got up. "Where are the others?"

"Working on finding that dude—Albert Mutare," Cisco replied.

"Oh!" Harrison suddenly shouted, smacking his head. "I should have realized!"

"What?" both Hermione and Cisco asked, running after him as he strode into the cortex. "You said that you followed this guy through a wormhole. Who do we know that uses wormholes and has been stalking me my entire time here?"

Cisco's jaw fell open.

"Paradox?" he asked.

"Paradox?" Hermione queried. "Who's Paradox?"

"Oh, what he said," Cisco responded. "Just some guy who uses wormholes and has been stalking Harrison for forever."

"What?" Hermione nearly shrieked.

"Have you got anything?" Harrison asked as he found where the others were standing around. Ron had his wand out.

"There's a trace of…" he trailed off and looked at Stein. "What did you call it?"

"Transdimensional energy," he offered.

" _That_ ," Ron said. "At that barn house we came through."

"Is that all?" Hermione asked. "That could be left over from when we came through."

"I got you," Cisco said quickly, running over to a computer and typing away. "I'm setting up an algorithm searching for transdimensional energy in our area. If there is a flare, it will tell us."

"So what?" Barry asked. "We're supposed to just sit around and wait until he comes back?"

"Essentially," Cisco replied.

Harrison sighed, "This is going to be a long night."

…

"Got it!"

Beside Cisco, who was pumping his hand in the air in triumph, Ron let out a snort and shot up, his eyes flying open. A paper from the desk was stuck to his cheek.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed, shaking Harrison. "Harry, wake up! We've got him."

Harrison slowly lifted his head, blinking.

"Call Barry," he rasped before getting to his feet. "He won't want to be left out."

"We're coming with you," Ron stopped him, grabbing his arm.

"No, you'll just get in the way," Harrison replied.

He waved his hand, transfiguring his clothes into his Midnight Phantom suit and disapparated. He reappeared in the old barn where a man sat, shrouded in shadows.

"I knew you'd come for me," the man laughed. Two pinpricks of red shone from the gloom. "Your friends followed me here. They led you to me."

There was a flash of yellow and Barry appeared at Harrison's side.

"We need to talk to you!" the Flash exclaimed.

"No," the man retorted. There was a rustling sound and the red eyes rose—Paradox was getting to his feet. "We need to leave. Not you, of course, Flash. Just Harrison and I."

"We're not leaving now," Harrison retorted. "What about my friends? They have to get home."

"They're not my problem," Paradox shrugged. " _They_ followed me here. It was their choice."

Harrison looked to Barry, who nodded discreetly. This wizard shot his hands out and ropes flew from them, heading straight for Paradox. The man was bound tightly. Then, he grabbed the loop of rope closest to his hand and the entire rope dissolved as though it had experienced years of decay. Barry ran forward and engulfed the man in a circle of yellow lightning.

Then, Barry ran back to Harrison's side and their adversary fell to the ground unconscious.

…

Paradox jumped up. He beat on the glass of his cell. Where the glass should have turned into a million grains of sand, nothing happened. He threw his fist into the ground. When the ground should have buckled and warped, nothing happened still.

"There's a dampener on your cell, preventing you from using your powers," Harrison said from outside the cell. "You won't be leaving any time soon." Paradox growled. "Now you're going to give me some answers…" Harrison trailed off, unsure of how to phrase his many questions. "What is going on?"

The man in the cell leaned forward, placing his hands on the glass gently.

"You," he replied. "You have strayed too far from home."

"From my Earth?" Paradox nodded. "Why are you so obsessed about me?"

"You created me—so I created you," the man replied slowly.

"What do you mean, you created me?" Harrison asked.

"There was no Harrison Wells," the man replied. "Harrison Wells does not exist. In taking you and sending you where you needed to go— _I_ created _you._ "

"And I suppose you mean I created you by the fact that I must have built a particle accelerator that you were affected by?"

"Yes," the man replied. "The day after the particle accelerator blew, I woke up—I had _powers_. Of course, the other always resented me."

This last part he said almost to himself, staring off as if he had forgotten Harrison was there entirely. Harrison was confused as to what he meant by 'the other.' It almost reminded him of multiple personality disorder…Harrison's eyes widened as he realized that that must have been exactly what this was. Colin had said that they had followed a man named Albert through the wormhole. At the same time, that man was calling himself Paradox.

What if they could reason with Albert?

"The other?" Harrison asked. Paradox fixed his glowing eyes on the young man once more. "Do you mean Albert?"

"Yes. He's always here trying to push me down."

"Albert, if you're in there," Harrison said, "you don't need to be afraid. We want to help you. Both of you. I understand that you want me home," he began talking to Paradox this time, "and I will return home. I just need to sort out a few things first."

Slowly, the red faded from the man's eyes and a look of shocked confusion filtered through his face. He looked about himself in horror and pressed his hands against the glass.

"What's going on?" he asked in a panicked voice. "Why am I here?"

"Don't worry," Harrison tried to say complacently. "You won't stay there for long. We don't want to hurt you. Do you believe me?"

The man stopped and searched his face for a long time.

"Yes."

…

"So imagine that there are two different multiverses," Stein said, drawing two circles on the clear dry-erase board. After listening in on Harrison's conversation with Albert and then discussing it, he was formulating a theory. "A multiverse with magic and no Harrison Wells, and one with Harrison Wells and no magic. Now Mr. Mutare—Paradox—whoever he is—realized this fact and, not understanding what he was doing, decided to _create_ the world that was missing from his. He took Harry Potter and created an entirely new multiverse—one with both magic and metahumans." He drew a third circle, in between and overlapping the other two.

"Let me get this straight," Cisco said slowly. "This guy somehow _created_ an entirely new multiverse— _on accident_?"

"Yes," Stein replied. "More than likely, he was created by Harrison Wells and travelled to a time where he realized that the very man that created him didn't exist—so to be created, he had to create him, producing—"

"A causal nexus—" Cisco breathed.

"Or—" Stein continued.

"A paradox," Barry breathed.

"Well, now we know why he chose to name himself that," Harrison muttered.

"But wait," Barry interrupted. "In the book series, Colin Creevey died in the last battle."

They all looked at the young man in question.

"Well perhaps the original book series would be considered that multiverse's 'Earth One' and these people are from their equivalent to our 'Earth Two'," Harry suggested. They all looked at him in surprise. "Yeah, I'm still here."

"My head hurts," Eddie muttered from where he was standing next to Joe.

The older cop nodded and added, "Yeah, I have no idea what you people are talking about anymore."

"So what now?" Iris asked.

"I suppose we have to reason with Albert and get him to take my friends home," Harrison replied, gesturing to the witches and wizards standing with them.

"Wait, but you're coming with us!" Ginny exclaimed. "…Aren't you?"

"I'm sorry," Harrison said honestly, his eyes softening sympathetically. "I _do_ remember your world now. And I remember how close I was to all of you…I just…don't feel like that's home anymore. I have a family back in my own—parents who raised me as their own—that's more than I ever had going to Hogwarts and living with the Dursleys."

"We understand," Hermione said softly.

"Thanks," he whispered, unsure of anything else to say.

…

"I'm not this…Paradox guy you're talking about," Albert argued, standing outside his containment unit in the pipeline with all of the others. "I can't use these powers."

"But you _are_ him," Harrison tried to reason with him. "Listen, haven't you ever blacked out, and not known why?" Albert stopped. It seemed he had. "You're experiencing what is known as dissociative identity disorder, commonly formed after traumatic events—events such as a particle accelerator blowing up and changing your cellular and mental structure. We know you _aren't_ a man who goes around hurting people. But we need your help."

"How would I even access these powers?" Albert asked. "Or know how to control them?"

"You're going to speak to your other personality—to Paradox."

…

Albert stood with his hands outstretched, a wormhole appearing in the air. Everyone stood and watched—the wizards were there, ready to return home, as was Harrison. Along with them was the regular Team Flash, there to wish him goodbye, along with Joe, Iris, and Eddie. As Albert pulled back and a stable wormhole rotated in the air, the man turned to the magicals.

"This should lead you home," he told them. "Inter-dimensional travel is tricky, but Paradox told me that as long as I focus on where exactly I want to go, I should pull up the proper wormhole."

"Thanks," Ron said sincerely.

They all turned back to look at Harrison.

"I hope you all live good lives when you return," he said to them.

The four nodded sadly back at him. With that, Colin stepped into the portal back to his world. Ron patted Harrison on the shoulder and followed Colin through the wormhole. Both of the girls threw themselves into a hug, wrapping their arms around Harrison's neck. He awkwardly patted their backs.

"You too, Harry," Hermione whispered. She pulled away and, with one last sad smile, followed her boyfriend, Ron, home.

Ginny lingered the longest, pulling back and looking Harrison steadily in the eyes. The young man remembered his relationship with her—their steady dates. They had been happy together. Most likely, if all of this hadn't happened, he would have happily grown old with her. Sadly, he told her in quiet tones, "I really am sorry for all this. I have—I have a fiancée back home. My parents I could leave, but…I can't leave her. Not when I've got promises to keep with her. I…I hope you find a good man that will take good care of you."

Ginny teared up. She let out a shaky breath, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Goodbye, Harry," she whispered, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek before walking over to the wormhole. She gave one last glance back at him with tear filled eyes before stepping forward, making the journey to join the others in their own world.

Harrison stood rooted to the spot, silent, choking back his own tears. Quietly, Albert stepped forward and closed the wormhole. The four magicals, Harrison's last link to a life he had once had—a life he had only just remembered—were gone.

"Time to go home?" Albert asked simply.

"Yeah," the young man whispered with a nod.

Iris stepped forward and gave him a hug, giving him her usual radiant smile and a short, "Good luck." Eddie nodded to him with a smile as his fiancée stepped back and he wrapped an arm around her. Joe nodded to Harrison as well, his face quite somber. Caitlin then walked forward and wrapped her arms around him in a hug with a smile. As she drew away, Barry stepped forward.

Harrison gave Barry a quick hug and after pulling away, whispered, "I hope everything turns out well. I know that you are still upset with Jay's death—and Zoom is locked a whole universe away. Don't let it drag you down."

Barry nodded and clapped him on the back with a smile and his own, "Good luck."

Cisco hugged Harrison as well, looking slightly distraught that he was losing a co-conspirator—one that had been working with them for over a year now.

"Go get your girl," he smiled. "And catch up on some movies. Your prowess in movie references was very disappointing when I first met you."

Harrison laughed.

"Our encounter with Paradox has proven to you that in your time, you do in fact build a particle accelerator that created metahumans," Harry said, pulling him aside. "I am sure you have learned extensively of the repercussions of this in your time here. Have you ever thought of making sure the blast is contained underground?"

"I'm assuming that's what you did?" Harrison asked, receiving a nod. "So no hope of changing the future?"

"Not now that you know what it is," his doppelganger replied. "Time is a very delicate thing. Any changes you make could be disastrous. Especially now that you are linked to Paradox in a never-ending cycle of time."

Harrison nodded despondently.

"Farewell, Harrison," Stein said as the young man returned to stand in front of the wormhole. "I wish you a good life in your world."

"Thank you," Harrison smiled. "All of you. I'll never forget you."

"Or us you," Iris replied.

Finally, Harrison turned back to Albert. The man in question raised his hands and a wormhole appeared before them. Before going through, Harrison turned to the man that had caused this entire ordeal.

"Albert," he addressed him, "I would like you to return to my time with me, if that isn't too much to ask."

"You want to keep an eye on me?" Albert asked wryly.

Harrison nodded reluctantly and added, "That and I am sure you need proper guidance and friendship to achieve your potential—something I'm sure you didn't have much of in your own time."

Albert nodded.

"All right," Harrison said. He let out a deep breath, and then without looking back he jumped into the wormhole.

…

Tess Morgan stood there with her arm reached out, her mouth hanging open in shock. He was gone. Harrison was _gone_. How was that possible? Her arm slowly fell limply to her side, but still she stood there staring at the spot where her fiancée had been only moments before. The sun beating down on her suddenly felt too hot and bright. The waves crashing on the seashore seemed thunderous and overwhelming. As Tess Morgan realized her fiancée was gone, it felt as though the whole world was crashing in on her.

A breeze caught at her loose hair, playing with it gently and whipping strands into her face. Then, the air around her seemed to condense. As if out of instinct, Tess turned to her left to see the air convulsing in on itself. The air rippled and swirled until a circular opening appeared in the center of it. A little beam of light shone through the hole.

Suddenly, silhouetted by the light was a dark shape. As it grew larger, the shape separated into two and then formed the distinct form of two men. Seconds later, two men were spat out on the ground. One wore a lab coat and a shirt that read "STAR Labs." He skidded and slid, his glasses getting knocked off his face. The other was tall, thin, and wore a pale blue button down and a thin overcoat that was a darker, greyish blue. His own, clear glasses were skewed slightly as he got to his feet, helping up his companion.

"Harrison!" Tess cried. "What's going on? What just happened? Where were you?"

The man in the blue button down, her own fiancée, Harrison Wells, turned and stared at her, his mouth hanging open. He stared at her face, drinking in every detail. Then, he ran forward and pulled her into a hug and a kiss with a shout of, "Tess!"

Tess pulled away and laughed, "Harrison, you're acting as though you haven't seen me in years."

"I haven't," he replied with a bemused expression on his thin face. At her confused look, he smiled and wrapped an arm around her. "Let's get home. I'll explain everything to you."

* * *

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


	28. Chapter 28

**I do not own...**

* * *

 **Chapter Twenty-Eight:**

Harrison Wells was a very successful man. Even he knew that. At the age of twenty-eight, he married Tess Morgan. Not long after, the couple moved to Central City, where they could pursue their dreams. Together, they founded the institution of STAR Labs. By the time he was in his forties, STAR Labs was renown and he was just as famous as the building itself.

Of course, no one understood the brilliant man. Sure, he was famous. Yes, he had at least ten biographies. Still, sometimes people wondered went through that big head of his. He hired many people—a lot of them nobodies. He told the world that he searched for people with a lot of potential—people with impressive resumes and school records. However, only he and his wife knew the truth behind the people he hired.

Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Ronnie Raymond, and Barry Allen were all asked to come to work for him for a specific reason. Although he knew that these people weren't the same he had come to think of as family during his stint on Earth One, having them work with him made him feel closer to them. Sure, these young adults never quite understood why a famous scientist sought them out—why their boss was so friendly to them—but none of them could object to it. To these young people, STAR Labs became a second home and Harrison Wells and his wife an additional family.

It was a working environment that Harrison strived to create—and worked very hard to maintain.

…

"Hey, Harry."

"Yup?" Harrison Wells from Earth Two responded quickly.

"Are you really sure you have to leave?" Caitlin asked.

"There's a lot I still have to fix on my Earth," the older man replied.

"Yeah, but you know it's more fun when you're here helping us," Cisco reasoned.

"He's right," Barry agreed. "It isn't the same without you."

"Team Flash doesn't feel complete without Harrison Wells," Caitlin finished.

Harry smiled and shook his head, looking down.

"Then, change that," he told them.

"There's a whole multiverse of Harrison Wells out there—in fact, there's _more_ than _one_ multiverses as you all well know. You want one? Let's go get one."

They shared a look.

"The question is," Caitlin mused, "do we want to pester a Harrison Wells we know, or find a new one."

"There's also the fact that we have no idea where to find him," Cisco told them. "Albert was the one that took him home—we don't actually know what Earth he lives on…or how to find it."

"Easy," Harry replied. "We just make a projection and using your powers, project a message into all of the known multiverses. In the message, there's a puzzle only I could solve and then we review our replies."

"And if our Harrison replies that he wouldn't mind returning, his signal will lead us to the right Earth!" Cisco exclaimed. "That's brilliant!"

…

"Are you sure this will work?" Cisco asked slowly, staring at the dry-erase board full of equations and the like as Harry was working on some sort of machine in the corner of the room.

"Pretty sure," he replied, not looking away from his work.

"I just hope that if our Harrison doesn't want to come back, we end up with a Wells with a better attitude. I'm not sure I can stomach another Wells with your bedside manner."

Harry handed him his vibe-glasses and retorted, "I care for you too, you jack-wagon." He walked over to a computer, pecking at the screen. "Systems are up. What are you waiting for?"

Cisco put on his glasses, holding out his fist and creating a breach. As it formed into a stable wormhole, Harry shot out a message through the satellite he had been programming and the message entered it with a flash of red. The wormhole disappeared with it.

"That's it!" Harry exclaimed.

"That's it?" Cisco asked. "So now what?"

Harry paused.

"We go get a Big Belly Burger," he replied, walking down past him.

…

"Guys I've never vibed across multiverses before!" Cisco exclaimed.

"Just a little bit longer," Harry told him.

Then, through the wormhole came three figures. The most recognizable was, of course, Harrison. He looked to be about ten years older or so. With him were two females. The older one had long dark blonde hair and a radiant smile. The other looked to be about three. She had wispy brown hair that was pulled up in a little sprig at the top of her head.

"Harrison!" Cisco exclaimed, coming forward to hug him.

"Huh, I don't know why I expected to get you immediately after you left us in your timeline," Barry muttered. "It's a bit weird seeing you…thirty…"

"You've already seen me in my late forties," the young man retorted, gesturing to his doppelganger. "Why would thirty surprise you?"

"'Cause you were….twenty?" Cisco replied slowly.

Harrison laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. Then, he turned back to the others and said, "Meet the family! Tess, you've already heard of," he gestured to his wife, "and of course, Jesse!"

Harry's daughter, Jesse, smiled and walked forward, grasping the toddler's hand.

"How are you, Jesse?" she cooed. "You have such a pretty name."

The young girl shot her a beaming smile and tottered behind her mother's legs.

At Harry's inquisitive look, Harrison nodded, "Yeah, it sort of felt like a jinx when we named her that—after all what with your Jesse, and all…" he trailed off, remembering that the teenager had been kidnapped by Zoom. "But, it was the name Tess had picked out even before my trip here, so…we sort of stuck with it."

He grabbed his daughter and lifted her onto his shoulders where she giggled and tangling her chubby fingers in his hair.

"Well, I think it is about time for my Jesse and I to return home," Harry smiled.

While the others were welcoming Harrison back, Harry pulled Cisco aside and whispered something to him. Barry and Wally both hugged Jesse and Harrison wished her luck.

"Okay!" Harry said, turning back to them. "You all ready?"

"Yeah," Jesse breathed.

"Okay, Cisco," the older man said. "Out with the old, in with the older I suppose."

Harrison laughed and Caitlin said, "Aw, you'll never be old to us, Harry."

Cisco put on his vibe glasses and conjured yet another wormhole.

"Let's do this," Harry said, grabbing his daughter's hand. "Oh, oh, one more thing." He turned back to the others. "While I'm gone, never ever, no matter what—"

And he broke off as there was a flash of yellow and the two disappeared with the wormhole.

"Well," Harrison said, clapping his hands together. "I'm famished. How about some Big Belly Burger?"

"Some things never change," Caitlin smiled.

Harrison laughed, handing his daughter to his wife, who kissed him on the cheek and smiled, "I can't believe I'm actually on Earth One. I'm excited to get to know your friends."

Her husband grinned.

"I'm excited for you to get to know them."

* * *

 **The End**

 **~LittleMissMycroft**


End file.
